Romney picks Paul Ryan as his running mate **official thread**

[Mr. Morden]

Btw, Ryan can still run for his House seat while running for VP:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2012/08/11/romney_s_vice_presidential_nominee_is_.html

[Mr. Morden]

The AP also confirms, joining CNN, NBC News, and others:

http://seattletimes.com/html/politics/2018894917_apusromneyrunningmate.html?prmid=4939

[Mr. Morden]

Guys, it isn't "rumors".  CNN says they have three different GOP sources confirming this.  NBC, the AP, etc. have multiple sources.  The Romney campaign is obviously watching all of this.  If it wasn't Ryan, it would be kind of a humiliation for him, to have this many news outlets saying it's him, and then for Romney to pick someone else.  The Romney campaign would have put out a statement correcting the record by now if it wasn't true.

[Mr. Morden]

http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/11/13227745-pawlenty-im-not-disappointed?lite

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[Mr. Morden]

Gore-Lieberman-Edwards-Biden...4 most recent Dem. VP picks were all sitting US Senators.
Kemp-Cheney-Palin-Ryan...4 most recent GOP VP picks....none of them were current or former US Senators.

[Mr. Morden]

Is Saturday timing normal? Seems weird for any other kind of news, but I don't know, maybe for VP it's different.

Obama announced the choice of Biden on a Saturday.  Of course, it was the Saturday before the convention.  I think at least one of the two of Cheney and Lieberman was also on a Saturday (can't remember which), but again, that was just two days before the convention.

Also, still nothing posted on Romney's campaign website.....though the fact that romneyryan.com redirects to his website is pretty definitive proof IMHO.  I imagine that those bootleg Romney/Ryan bumper stickers will do some business in the hours before the campaign provides official versions.  E.g.:



or:

http://www.zazzle.com.au/romney_ryan_2012_bumper_sticker-128758266343869604

[Mr. Morden]

CNN reports that the Romney VP app has now announced Ryan as his choice for running mate.

[Mr. Morden]

Romney campaign press release:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/08/its-official-romney-chooses-ryan-for-vp-131733.html?hp=t6_7

[Mr. Morden]

Bill Kristol gets his choice of Republican VP nominee two elections in a row.

[Mr. Morden]

The first two minutes of this video (after that, it gets repetitive):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOJ5Ej5FrPw

[Mr. Morden]

More details on the secrecy surrounding the pick here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/12/us-usa-campaign-romney-idUSBRE87919120120812

[Mr. Morden]

Romney family urged Mitt to go with his gut and pick Ryan, while his campaign advisors expressed skepticism:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/the-romney-family-takes-charge

[Mr. Morden]

Romney family urged Mitt to go with his gut and pick Ryan, while his campaign advisors expressed skepticism:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/the-romney-family-takes-charge

To be fair, we saw what happened to McCain when he went with his advisors' pick.

Most of McCain's advisors wanted to play it "safe" and pick Pawlenty, and he overruled them.