Romney to announce running mate on Saturday @9am ET in Norfolk, VA

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

We must remember that Romney himself is not 'part of Washington', though certainly not for lack of trying to be.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

My biggest thing with Condi Rice is that she's not from a swing state. California won't be in play for Republicans for years. I'm really, really partial to candidates from a swing state. People like Ryan, Portman or even Marco Rubio.

Is Rice 'really' from California or Alabama?

Never mind. It doesn't matter. The same statement is true in opposite directions for both. That much being said, I agree with Hagrid on the whole fetishization of running mates from swing states thing.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'm really thinking Pawlenty, at this point.

If we go through the Olympics with no substantive news, I might revise that to Ryan. I think RogueBeaver's got a good handle on the dynamic here.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'm beginning to  move away from an assumption of Pawlenty and towards thinking it'll be something like a tossup between him and Ryan at this point.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I responded to your PM, but I'll say it again here for the rest of the forum. I think that Pawlenty is trying too hard and I've looked more closely into Romney and Ryan's relationship (not necessarily a pleasant experience as someone who dislikes both of them, let me tell you! ) and they seem to have a good rapport and more familiarity with each other than I was aware of. I still think Pawlenty has a slight edge because he's 'safer' (and we'll remember that Romney's so far running a campaign straight out of the proverbial field manuals), but I'm not convinced he really has all that much of a leg up over Ryan, considering Ryan is orders of magnitude more interesting and has at least baseline competence for if and when Romney decides to go on the offense. For example, if it's Ryan who's going to be debating Dynamite Joe, that will be kinetic, informative to watch, and actually kind of exciting to political junkies like us. If it's Pawlenty, not so much.

I'm sincerely doubting the possibility of Portman, since I don't think anybody will really notice or care if it's him and he doesn't have the gravitas of Pawlenty (not that Pawlenty actually has gravitas, but I can imagine the Romney people perceiving what he has as gravitas).

[Side note: I have a ton of affection and respect for Joe Biden, whose cultural background is very similar to that of my family, so I have reasons to hope that the Republican running mate specifically will be a crashing bore; hence the shift in my perception of the veepstakes is the exact opposite of wishful thinking.)

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Apparently Portman's up on Intrade. Ryan still isn't really registering there.

Romney/Rubio would be the ticket with the absolute least high-level political experience in recent history, six years combined at the gubernatorial/congressional level--although I understand Rubio was prominent in Florida state politics for some time.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Would that be the Intrade which predicted Romney would win Alabama? Seriously, they're the last people who might have serious info.

Sadly for me as someone who would prefer the race to say as close to the status quo as possible for as long as possible, it would be that Intrade, yes.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Frankly I'm not convinced Ryan shakes things up as much as Romney thinks he does for purposes of the campaign, but I'm fundamentally more concerned about the prospect of him holding high office than the other main contenders.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The last time the media and Democrats spent time criticizing Paul Ryan it actually went reasonable well for a while, though. I also think you're seriously underestimating Biden's likability to people in places like Ohio.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

IMO Pawlenty's personal tax issue from '03 would hypothetically be more important than this.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/79331.html

Huh, I wasn't aware of this. Yeah, this might make Romney shirk from Pawlenty in favor of Portman if he's going for a 'safe choice'. Might, since Portman's picture is also in the dictionary under 'Beltway insider'.

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On this I think we entirely agree. A Biden/Ryan debate would if nothing else be hugely interesting, possibly revelatory.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Why? Even Norquist is giving T-Paw a pass here.

Really? That's a little surprising. I guess you know more about the scuttlebutt here than I do, though.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

He says so in the article.

I...er, may have skimmed the article in between trying to deal with a water leak into my bedroom. I'll be more on top of things in coming days, I promise. I've had a bad day.

I wish I could have a televised debate with Norquist. I just yearn for it. I am quite confident I could cut him to ribbons. Yes I do. The man suffers from innumeracy.

I wish you could, too, Torie.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Ryan fun facts.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/things-rep-paul-ryan/story?id=16912974

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FF

I have a feeling that Obama will end up using one of America's most celebrated and beloved authors against Ryan. That could cause problems.

She's celebrated and beloved mainly by people who don't study literature and have terrible taste in it. I don't even understand her political and ideological value when there are plenty of genuinely talented libertarian genre fiction authors out there and have been for most of the recent past.

What this indicates about Ryan's political beliefs most people already knew. What it indicates about his taste in literature and culture is worrying.