What if Romney selected Chris Christie as his running mate

[GregTheGreat657]

Discuss with maps

[Redban]

Not sure how to "Discuss with maps" (don't know how to put maps)

Anyways - the #1 problem is that Christie didn't want to be Romney's running-mate, as he publicly said. Christie was still in his first term as NJ governor, with eyes on a 2nd term eventually; and typically, candidates get more unpopular locally when they run nationally. Therefore, accepting Romney's offer for running mate would hurt Christie's chances of getting reelected in blue NJ.

But had Christie accepted, then I do believe Romney would have scored some points electorally. Christie at the time had very high approval ratings (60% or so), he was getting a lot of good press, he was considered a young, cool, hip guy. Many people wanted him to run for the general GOP nomination. I believe Romney with Christie would take Florida, and the margins in Virginia, Ohio, Colorado get narrower. Still an Obama win, but less solid

[Rat]

Piggybacking on the comment by Redban, I also think a few other things help the Romney ticket if Christie accepts. He's a better attack dog than Ryan, and I think he would've performed better in the debate against Biden (which imo was pretty important for Biden to win in 2012, since it took the heat off Obama for his terrible first debate). He also isn't tied to controversial legislation Ryan had pushed in Congress. As another moderate governor from a blue state, I think it would've helped Romney appeal more to independent voters and even Democratic voters.

I don't think it makes Romney win, but I think he performs better than he did in real life.

[Schiff for Senate]

Romney's campaign vetted Chrsitie, actually, but he was pretty uncooperative, and they found out he had a lot of baggage. So they decided to play it safe and rule him out, even though he was on Romney's shortlist. (It's all in Game Change: Double Down, detailing the 2012 presidential race - a pretty good read but I'd say not as good as its predecessor was.)

[hjii]

he wins Florida he loses New Jersey by Five Points