I agree with you. The GOP will lose if we repeat past tendency of nominating Republicans from the left. Neither Christie nor Jeb Bush will excite the GOP base nor attract conservative Libertarians or independents.
Pence is interesting to me. From my memory he was good in congress and now he has executive experience running a state. He does not have the one thing Christie or Bush has, name recognition, but that can be overcome if enough conservatives get behind him or whoever we nominate.
Re: Pence. I’m not totally up on all of his record, but my general reaction to him was good—UNTIL I heard him on the radio weeping over “families being separated by our immigration policy” on the radio. That was way back during W’s attempt at amnesty.
For me that’s a killer because it will be absolutely turning the country over to the Democrats period. That did it for me with Ryan, Walker, the GOP leadershit and some others.
I should add that if he were to have changed his mind on that subject, I’m very ready to take another, closer look.