Hey, it's delicate and imprecise work to find articles that old, you try it.
But it only took 3 checks, with my search criteria, to find one.
That wasn't the point. The one you did find reflects nothing about the state of the 2000 primary season. It was an oddball piece with maybe 4 or 5 posters and 10 or so comments. It means nothing. I remember well the McCain threat and how it caused the rallying effect around GW. A few threads on FR is not indicative of the entire Republican politic.