Examining the topic from a different angle, what women are we sure WON'T be picked? I agree with all the comments above about why Nikki Haley would be a bad choice. She failed to deliver SC to Romney, she's not well-liked in South Carolina, and she doesn't really bring much.
Palin won't be chosen for obvious reasons. Whitman wouldn't bring anything significant and there are much better candidates. Bachmann would be political suicide. I baffled why anyone would think Christine O'Donnell would be qualified to be VP.
The argument for Rice isn't a bad one, but I think she reminds voters too much of Bush. Even if Bush's image has improved in recent years, it hasn't recovered. I think Rice would come off as more of a moderate, too, which would hurt Romney.
Kay Bailey Hutchison and Susana Martinez are two other picks. KBH seems a little old and I can't really see her energizing voters. Martinez has the exact opposite problem - she can energize voters but she's only served as governor for a year. I'm not sure if I would categorize either of these two women as "out," though.
Aside from KBH, the other GOP women in the Senate are Ayotte, Collins, Murkowski, and Snowe. Collins, Murkowski, and Snowe are all out. Ayotte is definitely not a bad choice, but I wonder how some members of the party, particularly those in the South, would respond to a ticket of a former MA governor and a NH senator.
There are other women governors aside from Martinez, too. Fallin of Oklahoma and Brewer of Arizona. Brewer won't be chosen because she's too polarizing of a figure and will send Hispanics running for Obama. Fallin has some weird affair accusations, but she could provide the comfort that the GOP base needs, so I won't completely discard her.
Finally, I suppose Romney could select a woman from the House. The only two women in the House that would serve as somewhat reasonable picks would be Marsha Blackburn and Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Meh. Nothing impressive.
At the end, we have something that looks like this:
OUT: Haley, Whitman, Bachmann, Palin, O'Donnell, Rice, Collins, Murkowski, Snowe, Brewer
MAYBE: KBH, Martinez
LONG SHOT/RISKY: Ayotte, Fallin, Blackburn, McMorris Rodgers
Fallin would be interesting. She has alot more political exprience than Martinez in formely being a member of the US House and LT. Governor of Oklahoma as well as her short stint(so far) as Governor of Oklahoma. I guess if you are Romney you go for the best VP candidate possible that you can get and if thats Fallin so be it.
Blackburn: Maybe.
Rice: I like her but she is a moderate. No that that bothers me but the religious right it would probably bother.
Haley: she has low approval ratings in a ruby red state.
McMorris-Rodgers- she has no prescence to her.
Martinez -she would be the preffered choice.
