Bob Bennett: Maybe I'll run as a write-in candidate

“There are all kinds of mixed messages,” the 76-year-old senator told us. “People are showing me polls that show I win the primary handily if I run as a write-in. Others say, ‘Forget the primary, run as a write-in in the general, then you can use the money you’ve raised for the general.'”

Still others, he said, “say, ‘Ah come on, you don’t want to be seen as a… as a… sore loser.'”

We interjected – “as a Joe Lieberman?” – referring, of course to the senator from Connecticut who ran and was elected as an Independent in 2006 after losing the Senate Democratic primary. Bennett chuckled and said Lieberman “has made it very clear he’s willing to talk to me anytime” about how to win in the general after losing in the primary.