The hunt for Mitt Romney’s running mate has entered the final sprint and the betting money is coalescing around Tim Pawlenty and Rob Portman.Posted on 08/01/2012 9:42:17 PM PDT by Red Steel
The hunt for Mitt Romney’s running mate has entered the final sprint and the betting money is coalescing around Tim Pawlenty and Rob Portman.
They are both without scandal lurking in their background—and both so bland they make Romney look charismatic by comparison.
There are even oddsmakers weighing in on the process. In London, the safest bets are on Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio at 2-1 odds and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty at 11-8. The company Intrade, which allows the public to bet on political outcomes, this morning had the chances of Portman being picked at 30.7 percent, while it put Pawlenty at 26.3 percent. (Intrade, by the way, also put President Obama’s chance of re-election at 57.8 percent.) How about Sarah Palin? Mccain’s 2008 choice isn’t looking so good at 0.6 percent chance.
The woman in charge of Romney’s selection team is Beth Myers, a 55-year-old Boston lawyer who ran Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Most observers believe the key criterion Myers and Romney is looking for is someone who is as safe as possible. In other words, the anti-Palin. Traditionally vice presidential picks are seen as someone who can add to the ticket qualities or constituencies the candidate lacks. That would point to someone like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who is Latino and could help Romney trim away at Obama’s huge lead with that crucial constituency. But Rubio has had questions raised about his personal finances—missing payments on his $100,000 student loan bill or on a Florida home that is significantly underwater. It is almost quaint to be talking about Rubio struggling with payments of several thousand dollars a month when Romney is sitting on personal wealth that might top $300 million. Though Rubio’s struggles with personal finances might make him even more relatable to the average voter in this recession age, Romney’s people will likely avoid anyone with anything remotely questionable in his background.
Huffington Post writer Howard Fineman said picking Rubio in this scandal-obsessed age would be like throwing an entire hog in the “shark tank.”
Last Friday Myers sent out a mysterious tweet that many took as a list of names she is considering—though it had the hashtag #ff, which in Twitter land is a popular name for something called “follow Friday,” suggesting things for Twitter users to follow. Among the names on her list were Rob Portman, Tim Pawlenty, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Marco Rubio, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Newt Gingrich. About Gingrich, Fineman said on the Huffington Post, that he “must have been included for entertainment purposes.”
Why not just go all out mitt... ask robert kennedy junior!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have a feeling Romney won’t pick any political candidate.
His wife will be his Vice President.
Must be a Mormon thing.
LLS
Yes... you are correct... I made a post above this one about West being VP and my being torn over having to consider voting for mitt if he chose West... but I just cannot get past mitt’s support for the murder of the most innocent and in his own words... it was “instilled in me from birth... by my mother”.
LLS
MDAA was signed on Dec. 31 2011 which gave the military extended powers to arrest American citizens. Allen West voted for that bill.
Which means that as soon as the pick is announced, it will get very ugly around here for a while. There is simply nobody out there that will satisfy us in my opinion (though I'd personally be happy with Palin or Susana Martinez).
Looking back on previous elections, there has been many awful picks for VP...Jack Kemp (Dole); George Bush (Reagan); John Edwards (Kerry); Joe Biden (Obama); Dan Quayle (Bush); Spiro Agnew (Nixon); Walter Mondale (Carter); Al Gore (Clinton); and all of those are just in recent times.
Chances are...we aren't going to be happy with Romney's pick.
Portman would be the smart choice, as Ohio is critical in the quest to remove Obama Hussein.
I see the usual blather from the screw America cause Mitt isn’t my choice crowd, but Mitt wasn’t my choice either - or my vote - and I will put aside my personal feelings on the matter and do what I think is right for America today.
DeMint would be an excellent choice. Geez, can’t they ever think outside the box?
Ditto.
But for goodness sake, not Pawlenty.
Sighhhh...can these two be any more mediocre... a cap & tax advocate and an amnesty backer... both with all the charisma of a gray wall. Ugh...
Pawlenty and Portman equals WIMPS! How about John Thune??
” From then on we will be on their butts to perform in a conservative way.”
That plan is working so well with McConnell.
If you support a candidate with a record of being a gun grabbing socialist....you will get a candidate that supports gun grabbing and socialism. You aren’t going to change him or the way he operates. If that were possible, McConnell, McCain, and Boehnor would have been brought in line a long time ago.
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