Is Newt Gingrich hinting about eventually supporting Fred Thompson?

This is pretty interesting stuff if you have a "Fredhead" slant to your world (as I do).

Newt Gingrich has said he won’t make up his mind whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination until after the summer, but there are signs he is warming up to Fred Thompson as his preferred GOP candidate.

"I’ve always said it was unlikely I would run,” and if Thompson runs "and does well, then I think that makes it easier for me not to run,” he said in an interview with the Associated Press last week.

But on the same day as the interview, the former Speaker of the House’s communications director Rich Galen said he had signed on as an advisor to Thompson’s not yet official campaign.

In another possibly telling sign, Gingrich and his wife had dinner with Thompson and his wife at Thompson’s home in Virginia on July 16, according to The Politico.

Gingrich has insisted that he won’t make a decision on a presidential run until after he marks the 13th anniversary of the Contract with America with an online seminar in late September.

By keeping the possibility of a White House bid open, Gingrich "does get to help frame the debate by being a potential candidate,” Galen told The Politico.

"He’s not as consumed with becoming a candidate as he is consumed with the candidates talking about the things that are on his mind.”

Courtesy of Newsmax

If Newt is seen as backing Fred then its all over on the conservative side. As a matter of opinion, I hope Newt signs on as an advisor - but has nothing to do with anything other than coming up with good ideas. Newt is great at ideas, lousy at implementation (which is why he would be a terrible president and was ultimately unsuccessful as speaker).