I agree, I think Mitt Romney may have the best chance. As much as I love Rudy, Mitt is more solid on traditional Republican values. Where I'm unsure if Rudy could win southern primaries because of his moderate views, Mitt Romney shouldn't have a problem. The added bonus is that Romney has proven that, even with his conservative principles, he can win in a liberal state.
I would like to see Romney paired up with a southerner. Frist would be a great V.P. But, there are a few longshots as well . . . J.C. Watts? Mitch McConnell? Fred Thompson?
Romney is a terrific guy. He is conservative, has a good record and is good on the stump. People see him and they like him. He has that "W"esque likeability that makes the difference in close races. The reason that Romney is not going to get the GOP nomination is that he is LDS, a Mormon. Most folks wouldn't care but there is still a large enough segment of the American electorate that is bigoted and it would cost him the election. The demographic that will hurt him is southern Christians. The Democrats hate all christians with equal fervors but the people who will cause Romney fits are in his own party and vote heaviliy in the Southern primaries. We saw similar bigotry with Bobby Jundahl (racial not religoius.) By all rights he should have won that race. It was the election day misgivings of some voters about voting for a brown-skinned governor with a funny name (despite his Christian credentials) that did him in. In 2000 Gore probably imagined that he was getting a bonus with the Jewish vote by choosing Lieberman but what he didn't calculate was the anti-Semitic vote. It is a very small fringe of people but it is particularly strong in the African American population (Think Nation of Islam, Jesse Jackson's hymie-town slurs). Did it cost him 300 votes in Florida???
America will only elect a mainstream protestant or a Catholic to the top spot. Many evangelical protestant churches (particularly in the key southern states needed for a GOP win) openly condemn the Mormons as a cult, their teachings as false prophecy and their leaders as evil. This poses a huge problem for a Romney presidential bid. It would be hard to rally the conservative congretations to go out on Tuesday and vote for a Mormon president when Monday night's Bible Study was on the evils of Mormonism. I think the only way Mitt could make it would be as a VP first so that Americans would know him well enough to overcome the bigotry. Some will argue that his election to the MA Governorship proves that he can overcome religious stereotypes, but MA is a poor sample for the rest of the country. Just being a Republican who can get elected in MA is a religious miracle.