Was Rich Lowry unavailable?

I ask because Mark Halperin and John Heilemann are reporting that William Kristol—who teased this weekend that he had identified an “impressive” third-party candidate “with a strong team and a real chance” to beat Donald Trump—is trying to recruit National Review contributor David French to enter the presidential race. One snag, according to Halperin and Heilemann, is that “French has not lined up a vice-presidential running mate or significant financial support.” Another might be that no one has ever heard of him. Is David French going to satisfy the totally real guy at the pizzeria in Penn Station who told Kristol he was personally counting on him to get “us a better choice”? Somehow I think not.