If Romney is the nominee, don’t expect Christie or any other moderate on the ticket

There’s been rumblings that maybe New Jersey governor Chris Christie would make the Romney presidential ticket but I don’t see that happening at all. Christie makes for good television, but he’s way too moderate for the VP slot. He’s a tough-talker which Republicans like, but he tends to be pretty reasoned in his approach to Democrats and the president. None of that chewy red meat Sarah Palin threw to the masses in 2008.

Ditto for Huntsman who is, to be quite honest, much too Mormon for an already too-Mormon ticket. I could rattle off a half dozen other moderates that people like to speculate on but it’s just not going to happen. Romney needs a social conservative on the ticket – preferably an evangelical, not a Catholic or mainline protestant. That means Santorum and Gingrich are both out unless Santorum has some leverage nobody knows about. Obviously Paul will never be considered, and I doubt he’d sign up anyways.

So who does that leave? Jim DeMint? Michelle Bachmann? I honestly don’t know. Most of the speculation I’ve seen sounds like either wishful thinking or revelations of secret crushes…

In the above video it’s suggested that Ohio’s Rob Portman might be the Romney pick and that actually makes sense. Portman is pretty universally awful on all the issues as far as I’m concerned – which makes him perfect for the GOP.

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Erik Kain

Erik writes about video games at Forbes and politics at Mother Jones. He's the editor of The League though he hasn't written much here lately. He can be found occasionally composing 140 character cultural analysis on Twitter.