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

[Fritz]

Pawlenty will not get Minnesota.

Is Portman really off the list?

[RogueBeaver]

Pawlenty will not get Minnesota.

Is Portman really off the list?

Where did you get the idea that Portman's off? If GOP 12- LOL. Any report that the list doesn't include Portman and Ryan is probably junk IMO.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Pawlenty will not get Minnesota.

Is Portman really off the list?

Where did you get the idea that Portman's off? If GOP 12- LOL. Any report that the list doesn't include Portman and Ryan is probably junk IMO.

Of course, Romney may know something you don't.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Pawlenty would be a huge mistake. If the Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare, Romney should be getting a slight boost. With Pawlenty on the ticket, all Obama has to do is play Pawlenty's "Obamneycare" sound-bite.

[Mr. Morden]

I don't think Pawlenty is the frontrunner, though yeah, a couple of different sources have said that he's popular in Romney's inner circle.  National Journal mentioned it, as did Chuck Todd on MSNBC:

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-daily-rundown/47764844

Btw, McCain has floated Hoeven as a possible Romney running mate:

http://www.jamestownsun.com/event/article/id/162705/group/homepage/

but there's nothing to suggest that the campaign itself is considering him.

It's also interesting that North Carolina is the "audition state" for the VP prospects:

http://decoded.nationaljournal.com/2012/06/hie-thee-to-north-carolina.php

[morgieb]

Yeah I rate Hoeven as a good choice if Romney was to do a dark horse pick - although North Dakota isn't a swing state, he has experience as a governor and a Senator, and also was the head of a bank in North Dakota, giving him economic credibility. Isn't too conservative, and is surprisingly young despite experience.

But I don't see it happening.

[milhouse24]

Yeah I rate Hoeven as a good choice if Romney was to do a dark horse pick - although North Dakota isn't a swing state, he has experience as a governor and a Senator, and also was the head of a bank in North Dakota, giving him economic credibility. Isn't too conservative, and is surprisingly young despite experience.

But I don't see it happening.

I'm just puzzled as to why less experienced, younger politicians are getting so much press and attention from the Romney camp.  It seems like older, credible, and prominent politicians like Thune, Burr, and others are not even considered.  Maybe they have too many skeletons, but being a powerful respected voice is a good thing that can only come from years of public service.  Romney is too safe for his own good, he just barely won the nomination, and it looks like he is trying to squeak by the general election, and I think that's a weak move by him.  Dubya Bush can pull off close elections, but Romney can't. 

[milhouse24]

I don't think Pawlenty is the frontrunner, though yeah, a couple of different sources have said that he's popular in Romney's inner circle.  National Journal mentioned it, as did Chuck Todd on MSNBC:

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-daily-rundown/47764844

Btw, McCain has floated Hoeven as a possible Romney running mate:

http://www.jamestownsun.com/event/article/id/162705/group/homepage/

but there's nothing to suggest that the campaign itself is considering him.

It's also interesting that North Carolina is the "audition state" for the VP prospects:

http://decoded.nationaljournal.com/2012/06/hie-thee-to-north-carolina.php

I think Pawlenty has always been the frontrunner in Romney's mind, at least as the safest default candidate.  TPaw is the safety school of VP candidates.  There are a lot of wildcard options and newish politicians like portman and rubio.  But as far as potential VP candidates from the batch of presidential debaters this year, its always been TPaw.  TPaw was the finalist to Palin in Mccain's camp.  For some reason, he is held in high esteem by certain gop campaign members.  He has an easy-going, pleasing personality.  He's young, mildly attractive.  He's very safe, like a naive younger brother. 

But I think Romney can do better in VP picks, but only if he wants to do better, and take a risk with someone more well-known, more established, but also his own man, and not a romney suck-up.  Americans don't want idiotic yes men, they want visionaries. 

I think Romney wants a safe anti-Palin; and TPaw is at the 50-50 mark that he is not as bad as Palin in experience or intelligence or scandals.  But being scandal-free should not be the only deciding point for a VP. 

[Bull Moose Base]

I don't think Pawlenty is the frontrunner, though yeah, a couple of different sources have said that he's popular in Romney's inner circle.  National Journal mentioned it, as did Chuck Todd on MSNBC:

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-daily-rundown/47764844

Btw, McCain has floated Hoeven as a possible Romney running mate:

http://www.jamestownsun.com/event/article/id/162705/group/homepage/

but there's nothing to suggest that the campaign itself is considering him.

It's also interesting that North Carolina is the "audition state" for the VP prospects:

http://decoded.nationaljournal.com/2012/06/hie-thee-to-north-carolina.php

I think Pawlenty has always been the frontrunner in Romney's mind, at least as the safest default candidate.  TPaw is the safety school of VP candidates.  There are a lot of wildcard options and newish politicians like portman and rubio.  But as far as potential VP candidates from the batch of presidential debaters this year, its always been TPaw.  TPaw was the finalist to Palin in Mccain's camp.  For some reason, he is held in high esteem by certain gop campaign members.  He has an easy-going, pleasing personality.  He's young, mildly attractive.  He's very safe, like a naive younger brother. 

But I think Romney can do better in VP picks, but only if he wants to do better, and take a risk with someone more well-known, more established, but also his own man, and not a romney suck-up.  Americans don't want idiotic yes men, they want visionaries. 

I think Romney wants a safe anti-Palin; and TPaw is at the 50-50 mark that he is not as bad as Palin in experience or intelligence or scandals.  But being scandal-free should not be the only deciding point for a VP. 

I think Pawlenty is easily the frontrunner.  Romney campaign's risk averse, especially with economy soft.

[Mr. Morden]

Burr says he's not being vetted:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/06/12/3312065/sen-richard-burr-im-not-being.html

[Mr. Morden]

An update on what kind of denials people are giving:

Refused to say whether or not they're being vetted (which means they probably are being vetted):

Jindal
Pawlenty
Portman
Rubio
Ryan

Initially said he wasn't being vetted, then sort of backtracked:

Thune

Seemed to deny that she was being vetted, but the quote in the media didn't give the full context of what was being asked, so it's slightly ambiguous:

Ayotte

Have said on the record that they're *not* being vetted:

Burr
Bush
Daniels
Haley
Huckabee
McDonnell
Santorum

No one's asked her recently if she's being vetted, but before the vetting started, she gave an unusually definitive sounding denial of interest in the vice presidency:

Martinez

As far as I can tell, no one has asked them directly any time recently if they're being vetted:

Christie
McMorris-Rodgers
Toomey
everyone else not on this list

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

This is no surprise

[RogueBeaver]

Speaking of which, Romney will join Ryan in Janesville on Monday.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/06/14/ryan_appearance_in_wis_to_highlight_romney_bus_tour_114481.html

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Paul Ryan. Yes please.

[Phony Moderate]

Picking a leading member of Congress in this kind of climate doesn't seem like a particularly good idea.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Picking a leading member of Congress in this kind of climate doesn't seem like a particularly good idea.

Especially not one who authored a plan to end Medicare.

[RogueBeaver]

Hmm... so financially speaking, Portman and Ryan are the best off of Romney's probable shortlisters.

http://nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/potential-romney-running-mates-in-congress-underwater-20120614

[Mr. Morden]

NYT has a new veep selection story here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/us/politics/auditions-for-a-romney-running-mate.html?pagewanted=all

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All of which suggests that Romney is unlikely to make a surprise pick.  Whoever he picks will be one of the names on shortlists being floated to the media before he makes things official.

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Oh, and finally, this was an amusing tidbit about Christie:

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[Torie]

Christie being fat, and now chronically late, suggests a lack of personal discipline. (I am assuming that what Christie does with his mouth, with sometimes gets edgy, is calculated.) Granted being a late fat fit Clinton as well (granted more late, and less fat), which lack of personal discipline hurt him of course, but he had compensating qualities. Christie and Mittens would certainly make an odd couple - one that is almost certainly not in the cards.

[RogueBeaver]

More on today's Waukeshan event.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/06/18/romney_joins_wisconsin_republicans_in_show_of_force_114512.html

[RogueBeaver]

Rubio is not being vetted, per Jon Karl.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/marco-rubio-not-being-vetted-to-be-mitt-romneys-running-mate/

[tmthforu94]

Don't have a link, but Daniels has agreed to become President of Purdue University. He's out of the running.

[RogueBeaver]

WaPo suggests that Portman is still the frontrunner but that Pawlenty, Ryan, Jindal are also in the mix.

https://ssl.washingtonpost.com/actmgmt/registration/login/long?appnid=politics&destination=http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sources-say-rubio-isnt-getting-seriously-vetted-by-romney-campaign/2012/06/19/gJQAUq19nV_story.html

[Mr. Morden]

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/romney-says-rubio-is-being-examined-as-possible-running-mate/

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I think this is the first time Romney himself (or anyone in his inner circle, for that matter) has publicly commented on who's being vetted.  Of course, it doesn't necessarily mean that he's telling the truth!

[Mr. Morden]

Here is Politico on the Rubio story:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/06/romney-rubios-being-vetted-126681.html

In brief, both ABC News and the WaPo reported that Rubio wasn't being vetted for VP.  Then the media started asking Romney about that, and he refused to comment.  Then a few hours later, Romney reversed course, and decided to confirm that Rubio is in fact being vetted.  Here is what Romney now says:

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Politico suggests that the campaign was forced to say on the record that Rubio was being vetted, because they don't want to risk doing harm among Hispanic voters.  But who knows.

Meanwhile, Pawlenty fever sweeps the land.  Race42012's supposed Romney insider source predicts that Pawlenty will be Romney's choice for veep:

http://race42012.com/2012/06/19/the-race-4-2012-rumor-mill-final-2012-gop-veepstakes-edition/

And Politico does a story on why Pawlenty is ascendent in the veepstakes:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0612/77619.html

Most amusing detail from that story: Pawlenty is a regular guy because he drives his own car:

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Anyway, the article does a good job of presenting the case for Pawlenty.  I'm starting to lean that way in my own predictions, for the record.  I could definitely see Pawlenty getting the nod.

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