Quote from trefoil:
Eh, whatevs. It's all academic.
If Christie had decided to run, then we'd have a real race. These guys? Mitt suffers from the exact same thing his father did when he tried running in 1968: he can't figure out how to say things that don't wind up offending some large slice of the electorate he needs to win.
Newt doesn't care, but he's the definition of baggage. He can try all he wants to indirectly play the race card by calling the Prez the "food stamp President" and all that, but it'll just backfire on him with everyone who isn't a braindead loser white man who really thinks his skin is a badge of superiority.
Against Gingrich, it'll be around 60/40. With Mitt, it'll be more normal: 53/47 and tight in the Electoral College, because even though Mitt doesn't really understand that politics is a contact sport, he is at least sane.
Had it been Christie, Obama wouldn't have stood a snowball's chance in that warm place we're all headed. Which makes me feel sorry for whoever gets the Dem nod in '16, but that's another election entirely.
Expert politicos think in cycles. Christie in 2016. I am sure you already read my analysis of that.