If we’re going to have a daily “meaningless poll” post, it’s only right that what we have a “meaningless VP tea leaves” post too. That’s what election blogging is all about until, say, late September, when suddenly the news starts to matter. Five more months to go, filled with stuff just like this. How will we find time to post it all?

If you believe the CW that Romney wants a safe pick as VP, someone who’s bland but solid in the Portman/McDonnell mold, then Christie’s the longest shot in the field. He’d be a terrific attack dog against O and a forceful spokesman for fiscal conservatism a la Paul Ryan or Mitch Daniels, but Team Mitt will probably be scared off by the lack of regional diversity on the ticket and the fear that he’d say something on the trail that would haunt the campaign. The media enjoys Christie’s bombast right now because it makes for good copy and because they appreciate, I think, what a good communicator he is, but they’ll go looking for things he says to be fake-outraged about if he’s VP because he’ll pose a threat to O and the Democrats. I don’t think Romney wants to deal with it. Also, although Christie gets plenty of “RINO” critiques from the right, he’s still a bigger conservative star than Romney is, which would make the dynamic of the ticket potentially awkward. The same is true of Rubio, but Rubio’s so much younger than Romney — and looks even younger than he is — that the elder statesman/rising prodigy appeal of the ticket would prevent Romney from being overshadowed. (Same with Paul Ryan as VP.) Not so with Christie. Remember, this is a guy who told NRO a year ago that he knew he could win the nomination if he jumped in and ran against Romney. He’s probably right. Why would Mitt want to co-exist with someone in that position?

Two vids here, one of the VP comments and the other of Christie explaining why Jimmy Kimmel’s fat jokes at the WHCD didn’t bother him. Exit question via NBC and Slate: Did Obama make fun of himself for eating dog meat to give the media an excuse to bring up Romney’s Seamus episode again? It’s an easy pretext for news stories about the “dog wars.”