People who would've won 2012 GOP nomination if they'd run

[A dog on every car, a car in every elevator]

...in light of senate primaries in the past week.

[pbrower2a]

Mike Huckabee would have done extremely well in states that John McCain won in both the primaries and the general election. he was the only one who consistently held his own against Mitt Romney.

[Simfan34]

NOTA.

[Insula Dei]

Huckabee and Christie would have come close at least.

[Wrecking Ball and Chain]

Palin would've won easily.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Palin would've won easily.

She would have been flavor of the month at least once, and might even have been in the lead for most of 2011, but do you really think she could have gotten through 20-odd debates without making a critical, campaign-ending gaffe?

[argentarius]

I'm the only Mike Pence voter. The reason I picked him was because the only time I've ever heard of him was because he was 1 on the jmfcst list.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I am absolutely convinced that if Palin was running, she'd be the nominee.

[Pacific Councillor Big Wiggly Style]

Only Daniels and Christie.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Only Daniels and Christie.

This.

However, I think people underestimate Palin these days. She wasn't ready in '08 and she's probably still not ready now... But she's way better with the issues now and would definitely surprise a lot of folks.

[NHI]

Huckabee, Christie, Daniels

[Ray Goldfield]

Christie would have basically been Obama '08 for the Republicans.

[Chris B]

Huckabee is the only one that I could've see pulling it off. Palin wouldn't have survived the scrutiny, Christie isn't ready, and the rest really aren't interesting to make an impact.

[politicus]

Huckabee, Daniels

Christie is too rude for a lot of voters in the Midwest and the South.

[Insula Dei]

Daniels would have been even less exciting than Romney and his family life would have been a bit problematic, I think.

[Vote UKIP!]

Huckabee. Maybe Palin.

[ChairmanSanchez]

Daniels.

[milhouse24]

Its sad that Daniels refused to run because his family would be attacked. 

I'm sure all the liberals here would have gleefully destroyed Daniels' wife and family just like the liberals destroyed sarah palin's family even though her family deserved all the hate thrown at them, lol. 

Liberals will say its all because of hypocracy against christians, but in reality, its a political weapon.  Liberals will use sex scandals and affairs for the purposes of creating a atheist, secular, non-christian, pro-choice and gay society. 

The gloves are off and Daniels' wife will be destroyed in 3, 2, 1...

[Pacific Councillor Big Wiggly Style]

The thing about Daniels is, he's a tough guy. He wouldn't let the media get to him. I'm sure after the Ann Romney thing, Republicans would have a field day if the media attacked Daniels' wife.

[I Can't Get That Sound You Make, Out Of My Head]

Christie, Huckabee, Palin.

Palin may be considered a surprise, but the base loves her. Thune probably would've been like Pawlenty - a decent candidate, but one that's too bland to break out. Voted Daniels, but on closer inspection he may not have been able to break out of a primary that easy.

[EmersonAdams]

Huckabee. He's intelligent, reliably conservative, and personally well liked. I may be ideologically opposed to Huckabee, but he's the kinda guy you just want to sit down and have a beer with. As the republican party has shifted more towards the right, huckabee is probably right in the mainstream of the Republican party right now, and by standing up to rush limabugh he's shown that he has guts.

[Jayhawker]

This makes me look like a bad Romney supporter...

Huckabee
Thune
Pence
Daniels

[Fargobison]

Christie and probably Huckabee.

Can't believe some people are saying Palin. I doubt she would even win ND, even the people I know that liked Santorum think Palin is a joke.

[OC]

People saw romney as inevitable early on declined. Wished they had of once the santorum surge took hold. Huck should of been nom in either 08 or 12

[Mr. Morden]

Hard to say.  I'm not as high on Huckabee as some of you are because I think Maurice Clemmons might have turned out to be a pretty big deal.....but in general, I think Romney was such a weak frontrunner that almost any decent campaign could have sunk him.  He was extremely lucky that all of his opponents were so inept.  But the thing is, it's hard to say who's going to run an inept campaign before they run it, and thus hard to answer this question.