In one of the clearly less thought out editorials I've read in a while, Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, writes for The Politico today about the potentially successful "draft" of Fred Thompson into the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Take a look at this gem of a lede:

When Fred Thompson finally announces his candidacy next month, it will be the closest thing to a successful draft of a presidential candidate in more than a half-century.

I'm not sure if Brown actually understands what is entailed in a "draft" presidential movement. The way Brown sees it, when former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker and other super insider Republicans gave Thompson a call to suggest that he should run for the GOP nomination, a draft was created. No. That's almost the exact opposite of a draft movement. When a bunch of party insiders get together and try to dictate their party's nominee, it's no draft, it's a throwback to the era of smoke-filled back rooms where the party leadership once selected their nominee ahead of the convention.

A draft isn't an insider-led movement, or one with mere astroturf support, as is the case with the Thompson candidacy. Rather, it is one that at the least has real grassroots support, even if it is also fostered by an environment in which members of a party establishment are supportive of a candidacy.

Brown writes that if Thompson jumps in, "it will be the closest thing to a successful draft of a presidential candidate in more than a half-century." He used the word "successful" because, he writes, there were efforts to draft Henry Cabot Lodge in 1964 and Colin Powell in 1996.

But the Thompson candidacy is not the closest thing to a successful draft campaign in more than 50 years. Even leaving aside the fact that Thompson is not being drafted but rather being plucked by the party elite, there was a successful presidential draft campaign not but four years ago. I know because I was loosely a part of it -- the Draft Clark movement.

No doubt Wes Clark had some measure of support from the Democratic Party establishment during the summer of 2003 when he began thinking about running for the Presidency. But it was not until more than one million pledges of financial support for his campaign came in -- numbers that show real support within the grassroots -- that he actually jumped into the race.

So, no, Fred Thompson is not being drafted for the Presidency, and even if he were, he wouldn't represent the first successful draft since Ike in 1952.

Just to add... Brown distinguishes between Thompson and other candidades by saying that Thompson has not always been thinking of running for President, as they have. Wrong. Marc Ambinder reminds us today that Thompson considered a run in 2000.