Launching a stout campaign for Most Unlikely Analogy of the Year, Jay Cost of RealClearPolitics provides an extended meditation on Fred Thompson as the Bob Dylan of the 2008 presidential campaign.

The idea is that all of Fred's rather, you know, counter-intuitive conduct on the campaign trail doesn't indicate a lazy or irresolute geezer who expects the nomination to fall into his lap, but instead a brave rule-breaker who, like Bob Dylan going electric in the mid-60s, may be redefining the genre.

In Cost's defense, he's apparently doing a post next week that addresses the down side of ol' Fred's campaign style. The current column is entitled "Thompson Goes Electric." Maybe he'll call the next one "You Ain't Going Nowhere."