It is clever on multiple levels. It obivously defends McCain against Huckabee but it also undermines Huckabee with dyed in the wool conservatives who don’t like McCain. “Hey, if he likes McCain he can’t be all that conservative.” Pushing down Huckabee who is in the number two spot is the name of the game for McCain, and tossing some votes to Thompson (who is asserting he is the one true conservative) is fine and actually the least he can do in exchange for the Thompson attacks on Huckabee. Politics and bedfellows and all that…
