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

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Paul Ryan. Yes please.

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I still think it's gonna be Paul Ryan.

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I really don't think it'll be Condi.

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On FTN just now, Paul Ryan didn't deny that he was being vetted when Schieffer asked him.

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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.

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What both Ray and NVGonzalez said. She was never really in it, and I'm sticking to my Paul Ryan prediction.

^^^

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I'm still putting my money on Ryan.

Does anyone know Ryan's approval numbers in Wisconsin?

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I'm still putting my money on Ryan.

Does anyone know Ryan's approval numbers in Wisconsin?

44/39 last I heard and according to PPP he does give Romney Cheesehead lift. (50/43 to 47/46, IIRC) Has both the Beltway crowd and the grassroots, whereas Pawlenty only has the Beltway.

Ah, I see. I think Romney knows he needs to win Wisconsin if he wants to contend. If Ryan gives him a boost, then there's no doubt in my mind that he'd pick anyone else.

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Ryan's a smart guy. He could hold his own against Biden.

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Ryan's a smart guy. He could hold his own against Biden.
understatement of the year!     understatement of the year!     understatement of the year!     understatement of the year!     understatement of the year!     understatement of the year!

We have a nominee for understatement of the year! 

I almost shot a mouthful of my drink against the screen reading that. 

Would you like a cookie for pointing that out? Here you go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQYob6dpTTk

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Just got an email from the Romney campaign:


Friend,

How amazing would it be to personally meet Mitt and his choice for VP during this historic campaign? You've still got 48 hours to enter for a chance to meet America's Comeback Team -- don't miss out.

Donate $3 today to be automatically entered for the chance to join Mitt and his VP pick at a future event.

Good luck!

Abe Adams
Deputy Digital Director
Romney for President

Remember how they said it was each week until the announcement to enter this contest? Now it's down to 48 hours. Methinks the announcement is coming this week.

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Or it could be just that the chance to win this week ends Friday, with Saturday starting a new week.

Perhaps.

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Plus he's not going to announce after the tragedy in Colorado, out of respect.

Also, T-Paw is a tryhard.

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I think the pick will be either the end of the first week or the early second week of August.

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It'll be either Ryan or Pawlenty.

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Branstad endorses Rubio.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/28/13012808-rubio-picks-up-vice-presidential-support-from-iowas-gov-branstad?ocid=twitter

Game changer.

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But she's pro-choice and is not married. Plus she doesn't want the job either.

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Not so sure romney will pick a washington insider. Rubio is part of washington he's a senator and Portman is part of washington he's also a senator. Romney spent the entirety of his presidential primary campaign casting himself — smartly — as an outsider to Washington and its ways.

But Rubio is a very Anti-Washington/Anti-Establishment type of guy. Even as a Senator, he maintains the Anti-Washington type image.

Portman, on the other hand, is more establishment than Rubio, therefore picking him might not end up very well. The reason Pawlenty is a safe pick is because he wasn't a Washington insider, rather a Governor from a state as far away from the DC BS as possible. If Pawlenty's the pick, he won't win Minnesota, but it might help secure some states like Wisconsin or Ohio.

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Romney will announce his choice via a smartphone app, which you can download here:

http://www.mittromney.com/app/vp

Of course, in 2008, Obama was supposedly going to announce his choice via text message, but it didn't happen until about 5 hours after it was already reported by all the cable news networks.

Honestly, I think Mitt just wants to seem cool and relatable with this. He wants to show everyone that he understands what it's like to own an iPhone instead of a $500,000 robot phone that's not slated to come out until 2023. Mitt's relatable.

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If the Olympics end August 12th (as Wikipedia has told me) I'd expect an announcement between the 14th and the 17th, which is two weeks before the convention. Plenty of time to begin campaigning.

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I'm beginning to grow more confident that the pick will be Paul Ryan. No matter what anyone says or reports, I have a gut feeling that it'll be Paul Ryan. At the end of the day, Pawlenty is safe, but he's too safe. The base will get behind the Romney/Pawlenty ticket, but I highly doubt Independents will. Plus there'll be a bunch of "Obamneycare" ads, etc. Paul Ryan will excite the base and would definitely win over more Indies than Pawlenty would.

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I'm beginning to grow more confident that the pick will be Paul Ryan. No matter what anyone says or reports, I have a gut feeling that it'll be Paul Ryan. At the end of the day, Pawlenty is safe, but he's too safe. The base will get behind the Romney/Pawlenty ticket, but I highly doubt Independents will. Plus there'll be a bunch of "Obamneycare" ads, etc. Paul Ryan will excite the base and would definitely win over more Indies than Pawlenty would.

Ryan budget much?

Do you really think that more Indies would like Pawlenty? Even with the Ryan Budget, do you seriously think Independents will say "yeah, Tim Pawlenty FTW!!!!"?

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On the veep announcement timing, another option besides the one I floated earlier would be to hold it right at the very end of the bus tour, but tease the announcement during the bus tour to get people to pay attention.

Say Romney spends the coming week mulling his VP options, discussing it with his aides and possibly even talking to the short-listers themselves, with an eye towards having a decision by the end of the week.  But when Friday rolls around and the bus tour is launched in, say, either Michigan or Ohio, Romney kicks off the tour by saying that he's going to announce his choice of running mate on Monday  night, when the bus tour concludes.  The campaign will simultaneously leak the short list to the media, and Romney have the media scrutinizing his speeches throughout the rest of the bus tour for clues about who he's going to pick.  It'll be a ploy to get people to pay more attention to him on the bus tour.

Then on Monday, Aug. 13, one day after the end of the Olympics, by which time Ann Romney will be back from London, Romney concludes his bus tour in RNC host city Tampa by announcing his running mate.  The campaign then tries to use the announcement to dominate the media's attention for the subsequent two weeks, leading up to the convention.

This isn't a bad strategy...

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Jindal, speaking to the RedState Gathering, endorses Ryan for Veep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXHWqm2A3vI&feature=player_embedded

Good.

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If it's early next week, it'll likely be Pawlenty, if it's later next week, it'll be Ryan.

Rubio's become the dark horse.