Via Mediaite, let’s approach this subject this way: Could Wallace be referring to anything other than Romney becoming a Fox News contributor? The guy’s obviously not going to run for office again; granted, there’s a Senate vacancy in his home state, but he lost that state by 23 points last year. At this point, I think he’s probably had enough of having his political ambitions crushed. The only alternative I can come up with is that he’s maybe joining a prominent company as a board member or COO or something. But friends of Mitt told NRO yesterday regarding his CPAC appearance that he’s “eager to contribute to the national debate.” It has to be something political. And the only political avenue that’s open to him, realistically, is Fox News. Fox has leaned a bit further to the center after the election, bringing in Scott Brown as a contributor, parting ways with Palin, and often seeming conspicuously sunny about the Senate immigration bill despite grassroots conservatives’ disdain for it. Hiring Romney is the next logical step.

But … why? He has no natural constituency. He rose to prominence on the strength of his resume, not on his ability, a la Newt, to hold forth engagingly on conservative (or even moderate) ideas. His biggest political asset has always been his supposed electability, which is not something you’d think would lead to vibrant, arresting analysis. Maybe he’ll turn out to be great at it anyway — he’s good at pretty much everything else and is more than qualified intellectually for the job, needless to say — but the idea of it seems odd to me. Is there some inherent ratings value in having the last Republican presidential nominee as part of the team, even if the party’s young stars are all busy running away from his electoral message now?