So Thompson supporters...

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Considering that Thompson is very ideologically similar to Bush, completely supports Bush's policies and has closely aligned himself with and defended Bush, do you really think he can distance himself from Bush in the general? And if he can't, then do you really believe a candidate seen as closely tied to Bush can win?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

And Ronald Reagan was also a huge fan and basically a clone of Barry Goldwater.  Your point?

Reagan was hardly a Goldwater clone, but the analogy is asinine. Reagan ran 16 years after Goldwater, and Goldwater was never President, and thus had no effect at all on the political situation anywhere outside of Arizona after 1964 in any way.

A more accurate analogy would be Wilson/Cox in 1920.

After Reagan's presidency, with the fresh memory of Iran Contra, the media assumed that the Republican nomination was posioned, and the Democrats were sure to win.

Sure enough, when the Republicans and Democrats had settled on their candidates, the polls showed that Michael Dukakis had a commanding lead over George Bush Sr. In fact, most voters viewed themselves as conservatives, and were voting for Dukakis cause they thought he was more conservative.

A good campaign from Bush and a standard Democratic campaign from Dukakis led to Bush winning in '88.

Except Reagan was popular at that time. Iran Contra caused only a dip in his approvals that he recovered from. Plus the Iran Contra situation was over and it was a dead issue in 1988.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

But they will know he supports indefinitely continuing the Iraq fiasco.