It looks like [Christie] is going to skip campaigning in Iowa and camp out in New Hampshire. This makes sense, his more moderate blue state Republican governor and brash east coast personality is going to play better in NH.
Yes, but let’s not forget that Christie did the exact same thing in 2016, holding over 100 town halls and spending 70 days in the state, and he wound up finishing sixth(!!) in NH behind Trump, Kasich, Cruz, Bush, and Rubio.
This might be true, but where Christie starts to disconnect from reality is the thought that he would be the post Trump candidate that voters coalesce around.
If Trump somehow completely implodes, like winding up in a state penitentiary during the campaign, then many things become possible. In the hypothetical where you had a Trumpless field and Republicans were eager enough to win the general election to actually be pragmatic in their choice, then who knows. But right now they’re still the dog who caught the car on abortion, still in denial over Trump’s loss in 2020, and still frothing at the mouth to restrict the rights of a mostly socially libertarian nation, and they haven’t figured out that this completely sinks them with independents and swing voters. And they haven’t even been successfully painted as the anti-democracy party yet in the public consciousness, which they totally could and should be.
This makes it a nonstarter. Clearly the people on Pence's team understand that? It's just a huge head scratcher for me.
Maybe they’re hoping for Trump to be taken off the board somehow, as considered above. In a Trumpless primary Pence maybe has more of a shot, because the hardcore Trumpers might have low turnout. But with Trump in the race? No way.
As far as VP candidates go, I'm also skeptical about that. Trump isn't going to pick anybody from the current field to be VP, he's going to want a complete loyalist (and someone who is as batshit crazy as he is).
Well, Haley basically asked Trump’s permission before she ran, and he gave his blessing. And she hasn’t really opened up on him directly, she’s just made vague comments about leaving certain things behind and moving forward. If she doesn’t go after Trump directly and has a good showing in SC but clearly isn’t going to win, I could see Trump cutting a deal with her to get out of the race and endorse him in exchange for VP or a high level cabinet position.
Tim Scott might also be sort of running for VP if he doesn’t catch fire, but in his case it would be VP to a Trump alternative who manages to pull off a coup.
However it plays out it should be interesting, even if it just winds up being Trump redux.