The biggest gripe on Mitt here, outside of the hopelessly anti-Mormon types, is that some don't believe he'll act as he says. What he's saying now isn't a whole lot different than what Fred's saying. The differences aren't great by the standard of historical P/VP pairs. Having Fred on the team should relieve at least some of those concerns. Romney's preferred management style is to look at all the data, to hear all points of view and then pick the best choice. Input from Fred should help.
The biggest gripe on Fred, right or wrong, is that he looks old and lacks energy. That would be negated with the youthful, hyper Mitt at the front of the ticket, but would remain an issue with a Fred/Mitt ticket. The only problem with a Mitt/Fred ticket is that Fred has said he doesn't want to be VP. Everyone says that, but with Fred he may well mean it.
I’ve thought of the Mitt/Fred ticket. It has real possibilities, positive possiblilties. Fred would be the ideal laid back VP with all the gravitas necessary, the experienced advisor ala Cheney. Mitt is the attractive, coherent spokesman the Republican party needs today, the coherent spokesman that Bush was never quite able to be. His ‘Bushisms’ kept getting in the way.
The Mitt/Fred ticket. I like it.
Fred doesn’t want VP and would never settle for it. If he doesn’t win the nomination, he will prefer to go back to living the good life with the family he so adores.
Even if he did want VP, which he doesn’t, he wouldn’t serve with Mitt, whose supporters have tried to kneecap Fred’s campaign on several occasions.
First there were the misrepresentations of Fred’s prolife stance by “evangelicals for Mitt.” Then there was the “Phoney Fred” website which was tracked back to to Romney agents. Now, there’s the false rumor that Fred was about to quit the campaign, spread the day before the Iowa primary, and traced back to people inside the Romney campaign.
Mitt and his sleazey campaign are the last things that an homorable man such as Fred Thompson would ever want to be associated with.