[chiller]

We each have our favorites, and each of those has a vocal opposition even amongst ourselves. I personally could support and forgive Guliani's (social issues), Romney's (prior abortion statements), Pawlenty's (global warming empathys), Huckabee (social) . Palin's my favorite but many indys question her seriousness and readiness. Santorum would be perfect, but indys support may not be strong enough to overcome a "reactionary" label. Ditto DeMint. I don't know enough yet about Thune and Daniels, other than they're both impressive.

The point here is that we collectively may not coalesce behind any of the above enough to grab the new indys and win the White House. Mike Pence has virtually zero opponents within the party. He is one that virtually all of us could fully support, imho. He hopelessly loves Palin, so his heart's in the right place.

[Mouton]

Of all the candidates mentioned, some seriously some not so, Pence would be my choice. I do not want a RINO, period. Few on the national stage don’t fall into that hole. On the other hand, looking at electability, I’d definitely give him the nod over De Mint and Palin. Pence has the advantage of no baggage which is a big plus going into the pre primary season.