Yuval Levin makes an interesting observation about Fred Thompson's pre-campaign. In essence, he believes it is made of impressive individuals who haven't worked together before ... and this, presumably, could be a problem:
Anyone who has worked on a campaign can tell you how important it is for the top people to know each other’s instincts, specialties, and quirks, so that in the heat of the action they know to whom they ought to pass the ball and when
... We've all seen sports teams full of "All-Stars" who can't seem to win (sort of like the 2004 - 2006 Yankees with Johnny Damon and Randy Johnson). They brought these stars together through trades and free agency, they had all-stars at every position -- but they just never jelled.
Compare this to, say, the '96 Yankees. They had lots of holes, and lots of positions with 2 or 3 guys sharing the work load -- but you had a core group of people who came up thru the Minor Leagues together, and they had a team concept.
Only time will tell if chemistry (or the lack thereof) is a major factor in the Thompson campaign ...