Part one - Personal: Who could Newt Gingrich bring on as a VP that would make you either get fully on board with his nomination (if you already support him) or would make you at least give a further serious consideration of voting for Newt (if you're currently on the fence or against)?
I don't think
anyone exists that could get me to vote for Newt. I find the man to be a despicable waste of human flesh.
While I normally don't place personal character above political views, his character is so interwoven into his political views that you cannot separate the two. Morally speaking, I cannot willingly assist the career of a man I find despicable on all levels.
I'd be tempted to say Huntsman in this, but even with Huntsman as his VP, I couldn't stomach voting for a piece of **** like Newt.
Part two - General: What VP candidates do you think Newt could bring on that would seriously and realistically help his chances to win in the general, and why do you think that? What benefit would the individual have to a ticket and what would their purpose be?
As much as I'd like to see huntsman on a ticket, I don't think he'd work on a Gingrich ticket. Frankly, I don't think that Newt has much of a chance getting many blue dog and independent votes. Huntsman would appeal to those types more than "the base". But if Newt gets the nomination, there's a pretty good chance that most independents just say "**** it" and don't vote at all when faced with two terrible choices like that. The "lesser of two evils" issue is almost completely nullified in a Newt v. Obama race.
So if he gets the nod, he needs to pick a VP candidate that's not obviously
worse than him (no Palin, no Cain, no Bachman). Quite frankly, they frighten people who aren't hardcore social conservatives. Ron Paul is actually an intriguing option. He could actually get a fair amount of independents on board the Newter Scooter, but Paul might terrify many with more traditional political views who might have voted for Newt otherwise.
Christie is out for reasons explained by others (Christie's
absolutely right about Newt, which ****s Newt because he could certainly use a guy like Christie).
Ultimately, Newt's best hope if he won the nomination would be to ask Romney to be his VP.
Although my personal belief is that if Newt gets the nomination, Obama gets re-elected. The only hope for the GOP there is that an Obama re-election might pave the way for a Christie/Huntsman or Huntsman/Christie ticket in 2016.