Romney/Gingrich 2012? Viable?

[pbrower2a]

Gingrich has no experience in running for any statewide office even in a state in which he could have won such an office easily. The last two current or former Congressional Representatives who had gone no farther (Senate, Governor) who were nominated for VP (Kemp, Ferraro) lost. Jack Kemp had plenty of good ideas, and by all accounts, Geraldine Ferraro was a more-than-competent Representative. They just didn't know how to operate a statewide campaign beforehand. Neither was able to deliver New York State. 

Gerald Ford  spent almost his entire political career in the House of Representatives before he took over the Vice-Presidency from the disgraced Spiro T. Agnew. He just didn't know how to campaign outside of his district, and it showed in his effort to win the Presidency  by election.

[pbrower2a]

Remember, too, though that most voters don't vote for #2, they vote for #1.  I think Newt Gingrich would weaken the ticket a little bit, but I don't think it would be a deal breaker for the elections.  I don't think Sarah Palin really cost John McCain the election by herself.  She certainly didn't help the cause, but, McCain was just up against a strong wave of anti-Republican sentiment and an African-American candidate.

The VP candidate can be big trouble. I can't be sure that the tragicomic Eagleton/Shriver switch made a huge difference in the eventual result of the 1972 election, but it certainly did McGovern no good. Sarah Palin was an unmitigated disaster, but probably not enough to make the difference in a year of bad economic news. She probably lost Indiana, North Carolina, and NE-02, and quite possibly Florida. 

Gingrich has a "female" problem. I can imagine some Northern Republican choosing him for geographic balance only to find that his sexual escapades offend parts of the Religious Right.

[pbrower2a]

Gingrich is just about the perfect choice for Romney. He's got federal leadership experience, so Romney could still claim he is an outsider, but has someone with Congressional experience to help him out. Gingrich might appeal in the South where Romney is going to have some issues (though so will Obama, obviously). Gingrich's strength as an intellectual "idea man" could still hold true as VP, but his adultery scandal would be much less relevant as VP nom.

I think being a kingmaker is about the best Gingrich could hope for. I'm assuming the race ultimately boils down to a Romney-Palin showdown and Gingrich could help where Romney is weak (the South). A well timed Gingrich endorsement could wipe Palin out and give Romney the edge.

Romney stands for the nomination on his  own merits, record, accomplishments, experience, intellectual status, and business savvy, whereas the reason, and the only reason that anybody is even discussing Palin as a potential candidate is, obviously, because she was plucked out of obscurity by a desperate Presidential nominee who believed that bringing her onto the ticket would energize the party because of her youth and attractiveness.  McCain failed to recognize that Palin was in fact a lightweight airhead far out of her league and far out of her capabilities as a national candidate.

McCain tried desperately to pass Palin off as an energy expert , totally laughable, and as a maverick who would shake up Washington, whereas in reality she turned out to be not much more than the brunt of jokes, lampooned by late night comedy shows, and the pathetic subject of internet
stories, some true, some not.

McCain proved a failure as a nominee for President by miserably failing his first major test as the nominee, that being to pick a credible, viable, capable, knowledgeable, and competent Vice Presidential candidate.     

What do you know? Palin is a virtual expert on energy.  Have you read her book?  Heard her speak on the issue?  That's by far her strongest suit.

If that is her strongest suit, then I am quite unimpressed. "Drill, baby, drill!" proved irrelevant as the economy melted down.  All that she is good at is extracting patronage from a  corporations that extract natural resources. That might be a good way of doing government in a country with huge volumes of extractable resources and a small population (as in Saudi Arabia), but mineral wealth is comparatively small in America in contrast to the size of the US population.

Such as I have seen of her books is... quite empty. It's heavy on anecdote and light on policy.      

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No, it is because she is bonkers. Her poor grasp of logic manifests itself in a failure to understand the consequences of her statements. Her "death panels" canard is 100% indefensible. 

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Right-wingers alone cannot win an election. Moderates decide. She scared too many moderates to Obama/Biden. Sure, the economic meltdown played its role, but so did she. 

[pbrower2a]

FDR won the 1932 election by default.

It's interesting that in the SF novel The Man in the High Castle (category alternative history), the Nazis win World War II after FDR is assassinated and John Nance Garner proves an ineffective President after succeeding FDR. The author Philip K. Dick was a certifiable nutcase, but the story is very convincing.