"If we don't run Chris Christie," Coulter said at CPAC, the premier conservative conference, "Mitt Romney will be the nominee and we will lose." Don't make us settle, she warns.

How blind love is (in the beginning). Christie supports gun control. He backs "an orderly process" for illegal immigrants "to gain citizenship." "Being in this country without proper documentation is not a crime," Christie said at a Latino community forum in 2008. Potential opponents will surely remind conservatives of the occasions Christie stepped out on them.

Perhaps Christie is realistic about where this relationship would lead. He insists he's not interested. He tells reporters, "Short of suicide, I don't really know what I'd have to do to convince you people that I'm not running. I'm not running." But then the New Jersey governor goes to Washington to discuss national politics. He tells National Review that he could "win the White House." He agrees to meet a bevy of Iowa powerbrokers in late May. Monday, on a radio show: "You have to feel in your heart you want to be president more than anything else, and I am not there right now." Note that "right now." Tease!

Christie is a man of mixed signals. But Republicans can't wait forever. Their biological clock is ticking. So they look elsewhere. And there in Indiana is Mr. Right Now. He lacks Christie's command of a room. Mitch Daniels is an even more adult love. He's practical.

Many writers, including myself, have said they would make a great couple -- Republicans and Daniels, that is. Some flaws were mentioned: looks, unproven in the money race, his spat with social conservatives. Columnist Ross Douthat was an early matchmaker. Andrew Ferguson's smart profile laid out the good guy's case. The more silly flirtations, the more this suitable man stood out. David Brooks headlined his column: "Run Mitch, Run." GOP strategist Mark Salter agreed. He might be exactly what you need at this point in your life, the chorus sings.

Yet like many middle-aged men, Daniels carries baggage. I'm not talking about his divorce and subsequent rapprochement with his wife. As George W. Bush's budget director, Daniels low-balled the Iraq war bill at $50 billion to $60 billion. George Packer reported that officials in the U.S. provisional government in Iraq "faulted the OMB man back in Washington for nickel-and-diming their every request for money."

There was a budget surplus of $236 billion when Daniels began with Bush. There was a $400 billion deficit when Daniels left. Fox's Chris Wallace asked him: "Do you think it was wise -- at a time when we were fighting two wars -- to have two tax cuts and launch a huge new entitlement?"

Daniels said the terrorist attacks changed the calculus. He added, "Don't look at 2 1/2 years when I was in the supporting cast." He urges us to look at his leadership in Indiana instead. The competition will hardly oblige.

That's when high expectations are tested. We have, after all, seen hot prospects flop before. Sometimes, as she gets to know him, the electorate loses interest. She did with John Glenn and Wes Clark. They're occasionally seen as insufficiently committed. Ted Kennedy initially balked. Fred Thompson never cared enough. Some candidates are unable to escape their complicated pasts. These deal-breakers caught up to Kennedy (Chappaquiddick) and Rudy Giuliani (his liberal side). Many a romance cannot survive such drama. And in time, the electorate could wonder what she ever saw in him.