I hope that Romney runs, along with Jeb and Christie. In that way, the “moderate” (liberal) GOP vote will be split, and with any luck the conservative vote will consolidate around an alternative who wins the nomination.
I don't think it will play out that way. If Romney is in, I just don't see Jeb or Christie getting much support. The moderate vote will consolidate around Romney. Romney will simply crush them in the early primaries as he will have the full machinery of the GOP behind him.
Unfortunately our primary system does not favor a conservative getting off to a quick start (even Reagan stumbled badly in New Hampshire back in 1980). We really need to change our primary system as Iowa and New Hampshire should not have so much power in determining our nominees.
I've always advocated having three "national" primaries. One in early February to weed out the pretenders. Then another one around the end of March to determine the 2 or 3 finalists. Then finally, a run-off in early June that will determine the nominee.
You would need 10% of the vote to get past the first primary and maybe 25% of the vote to get to the final run-off primary.
Otherwise, it's a good bet that Romney will be our nominee. I know many here don't like that notion but we need to understand that Mitt Romney is well loved by the GOP elite and they still have him in their future plans. They feel he came close to winning against an incumbent in 2012 and should easily beat whoever the Democrats put up in 2016. The nomination is basically Mitt's to lose and it now appears that he going to get into the race.