The dog days spark political pairings

But the Democrats aren't the only ones looking to hook up. The Republican candidates seem to be catching alliance fever as well.

The clearest evidence came at last Sunday's debate in Iowa where we saw something publicly that I've been noticing privately for some time: Sam Brownback has decided to be a one-man anti-Romney brigade. What's been odd about Brownback's regular criticism of Romney is that he's been loath to attack the other two active frontrunners, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain.

One theory I've posited is that Brownback realizes Romney's newfound conservatism will mean he won't be looking for a conservative midwesterner as a potential running mate. But two flawed candidates (in the minds of social conservatives) like Giuliani and McCain would be more apt to consider Brownback in the hopes of ideologically balancing the ticket.

Previous NBC/WSJ polls (pdf files) Oct. 27, 2009 July 29, 2009 June 17, 2009 April 28, 2009 March 3, 2009 Jan. 14, 2009 Dec. 10, 2008 Nov. 3, 2008 Oct. 21, 2008 Oct. 6, 2008 Sept. 24, 2008 Sept. 9, 2008 Aug. 20, 2008 July 23, 2008 June 11, 2008 April 30, 2008 March 12, 2008 Jan. 24, 2008 More polls

Brownback's probably getting more help this week than you might imagine in his efforts to do well at the Ames straw poll. Both McCain and Giuliani aren't participating, but both campaigns have decent Iowa organizations (or McCain's case, HAD a decent Iowa organization). It's in Giuliani's best interest, for instance, if Brownback sticks around a while and helps dilute Romney's ability to woo social conservatives to his side.

But Brownback's not the only Republican pairing up. Giuliani can't seem to ever come up with a bad thing to say about McCain. I noticed it during the Sunday debate and even live-blogged about the likelihood Giuliani was hinting that he may, in fact, pick McCain as his VP. Then, earlier this week, Giuliani said if he weren't running, he'd be supporting McCain.

Why all this public affection for the Arizona senator? Simple. Giuliani knows Fred Thompson is about to get in and he knows McCain has had close ties with Thompson and the last thing Giuliani wants is any of McCain's support (which is still significant, even if less substantial every day) to gravitate to Thompson. Giuliani would love, for instance, to have McCain eventually stumping for him in the days leading up to the New Hampshire primary (assuming McCain can't go on).

The match making on the Republican side is just beginning. Fred Thompson's official entrance into the campaign will probably delay further pairing up until the second and third tier candidates begin to assess just how well Thompson will perform.

But as we have seen this week for the Democrats, once Thompson is in, expect to see the alliances forming on the GOP side during the next set of debates in September. Biden scored big with Clinton in his initial attack dog audition; and Brownback did pretty well for himself (in the eyes of Giuliani) on Sunday. I can’t wait for the next round.

Picking the president — the candidates Click a name below to visit that candidate’s MSNBC page • Joe Biden                 • Sam Brownback     • Hillary Clinton          • Chris Dodd • John Edwards         • Rudy Giuliani           • Mike Gravel              • Duncan Hunter • Mike Huckabee        • Dennis Kucinich     • John McCain           • Barack Obama • Ron Paul                    • Bill Richardson      • Mitt Romney            • Tom Tancredo • Fred Thompson To subscribe to a candidate page RSS feed, click here.

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