Mitt Romney Running Mate Speculation Thread

xp

As I read that Nate Silver analysis, it seemed to say that there's absolutely no way on god's green earth to separate anything of real signifigance from the statistical noise, about how a candidate's veep choice affects the eventual voting. If that is the case, then it seems otm to me, too.

Palin is a really poor choice. He'd probably drop votes picking her.

rubio def angling for the nod

Michael Crowley ‏ @CrowleyTIME Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
Rubio to give "major foreign policy speech." Does anyone ever give a "minor" address? Maybe on US policy towards Guam? http://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=5a28852f-d551-48d3-900e-e39c3cd6aede

Vice-presidents give minor foreign policy speeches, surely :)

speech seems to be going well

Zeke Miller ‏ @ZekeJMiller Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
YIKES! Rubio: "I left my last page of the speech. Does anybody have my last page? Did I leave it with you?"

I thought about this when I looked at Romney's wins last night, but didn't know if it was worth mentioning:

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/04/romneys-weak-night.html

I suppose it doesn't mean anything--maybe it's just a last way for a lot of people to remind him that "I will vote for you in November, but remember: I'm not crazy about the idea."

Is there anyone that's sincerely enthusiastic about Romney, aside from Mormons?

The trees of Michigan. That's it.

I don't think the trees like him, either. Our trees can be lovely but are often surly.

Haha c'mon man, he's breaking 50% for a change!

The jawdropper for me was when he didn't break 60% in Virginia, with only Ron Paul on the ballot.

Zeke Miller ‏ @ZekeJMiller Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
YIKES! Rubio: "I left my last page of the speech. Does anybody have my last page? Did I leave it with you?"

hysterics

haha this fuckin yutz mentioned #kony in said last-pageless speech

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/text-rubios-foreign-policy-speech_642078.html?page=3

I disagree with the way in which the current administration has chosen to engage. For while there are few global problems we can solve by ourselves, there are virtually no global problems that can be solved without us. In confronting the challenges of our time, there are more nations than ever capable of contributing, but there is still only one that is capable of leading.

And I disagree with voices in my own party who argue we should not engage at all. Who warn we should heed the words of John Quincy Adams not to go “abroad, in search of monsters to destroy”.

I disagree because all around us we see the human face of America’s influence in the world. It actually begins with not just our government, but our people. Millions of people have been the catalyst of democratic change in their own countries. But they never would have been able to connect with each other if an American had not invented Twitter.

The atrocities of Joseph Kony would still be largely unknown. But in fact, millions now know because an American filmmaker made a short film about it and then distributed it on another American invention YouTube.

Why couldn’t the senator just improvise the last few minutes? Because he was determined conclude the speech by reading lengthy a quote from Tony Blair.

“This is why I needed the page,” Rubio said, as he proceeded to read out loud a 2003 quote from the former British prime minister.

cannot groan enough

he did the whole thing in a whiney-esque british accent too

haha dying

American invention YouTube

*Newt/Romney - All American!*

is such a no-brainer bumper sticker

cuz those people love the gipper and shit

I'm a little verklempt.

"Gingrich, along with his wife Callista, have published four books since he launched his presidential bid last May." That's not typing, that's shorthand.

The Frank Booth inside Mitt:

http://theweek.com/article/index/227698/mitt-romneys-1981-arrest-and-4-other-times-he-lost-his-cool

#5, if it starts to circulate, can only help him; #4 is insanely weird.

"broke my hair"

"Sir, sir put your seat up!"

"Excuse me for party rocking"

Every day I'm shuffling.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/12/27/1325021197143/mitt_romney_dance.jpg

Un-break My Hair

Dad is his running mate

God's only the copilot.

For all of Newt's self-regard, he had a pretty funny moment of clarity on Meet the Press yesterday:

David Gregory: "Would you like to be selected to be on the ticket with Romney?"
Gingrich: "I think that's highly implausible. But, you know, I've learned the hard way not to ever say no. But I find that as implausible as you find it."

trump

“He didn’t know he was running for president, so he told the truth,” Trump said about Obama’s birthplace, basing his assertion on a literary biography written for Obama that was recently unearthed by Breitbart.com. “The literary agent wrote down what he said… He said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia… Now they’re saying it was a mistake. Just like his Kenyan grandmother said he was born in Kenya, and she pointed down the road to the hospital, and after people started screaming at her she said, ‘Oh, I mean Hawaii.’ Give me a break.”

When pressed by reporters on his campaign plane, Romney on Monday shrugged off Trump’s renewed birther theories.

You know, I don’t agree with all the people who support me, and my guess is they don’t all agree with everything I believe in,” Romney said. “But I need to get to 50.1 percent or more and I’m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.”

if Obama loses Romney will offer him the State Department.

He is a smug, grimy little pimp.

Trump is too.

LOL

for such an avowedly moral guy, romney always seems to act totally w/o principle

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2012/06/herman-cain-radio-show-neil-boortz-wsb-/1#.T809RcWAqVQ

Very disappointed. This will inevitably distract from Cain's Solutions Revolution, and it also pretty much guarantees that Herman will not be the next vice-president.

Any of the picks who'd strengthen Willard's standing with the right wing of the party are probably people he'd utterly detest. This will not stop him from picking one of them anyway. I say if Rubio turns him down, he'll go for Rand Paul or Jindal.

Either of the latter two would surely result in Romney displaying a frozen-jawed, mechanical grin each time they stood next to one another in public. Although, probably no one would notice this, for this is more or less his normal public face.

As Romney's prospects get better, I'd say Rob Portman's do, too. I know nothing about Portman except that he's supposed to be boring and safe (mitigated somewhat by his having served in the Bush administration). If the economy continues to sputter and Obama drives his own negatives up by having to hammer away at Romney, I imagine Romney will be content to go with the safest pick possible.

Conversely, if Obama rebounds, I'd say there's a greater chance of Rubio or Christie or Jindal or someone else younger/more risky. Can't see Rand Paul, though--that seems more akin to wandering into Palin territory, and I don't think they'll want to try that again.

Basically argues that Romney's ineptitude is the only thing keeping Obama afloat:

http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/104164/how-lucky-obama-in-his-opponent

At the breakfast, Mr. Romney introduced two of his sons, Matt and Craig, in a slightly unusual fashion. “I love them,” Mr. Romney said. “I love them like they’re my own. And they are! Craig!”

“I love them like they’re my own. And they are! Craig!”

This is so awkward and terrible it almost makes me like the guy, really.

nothing (short of a personality transplant) could make me like this arrogant doofus but journalists misread the response to his rich-guy awkwardness. lots of middle-class americans - not all - find it endearing or at least tolerable cause they aspire to be rich(er). the bushes were just as out of touch.

"what's he got? i want some maybe it will rub off" - donald trump has been dining out on this sentiment for years

that sons quote is his most Fred Willard yet

At a Wawa, one in a convenience store chain in the mid-Atlantic, Mr. Romney was dazzled by the touch-screen computers from which he ordered his meatball hoagie on Saturday in Quakertown, Pa. Later in the day, he tried to engage the crowd in Cornwall, Pa., by asking it about its favorite local sandwich shop.

"By the way, where do you get your hoagies here?" he asked. "Do you get them at Wawas? Is that where you get them? No? Do you get them at Sheetz? Where do you get them?"

As the crowd began to boo, shouting out names of neighborhood joints, Gov. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania tried to help out: "Delis!" he called out. "The delis!"

But after bungling the name of the Wawa several times — calling the store "Wawas" — Mr. Romney forged ahead.

"Ah, you get them at the delis, is that what you're saying?" he asked. "Well, I went to a place today called Wawas. You ever been to Wawas? Anybody been there?" As the crowd continued to jeer, he added, "I'm sorry, I know there’s a very big state divide."

I love this. Wawa hoagies are not bad for convenience store food but I doubt many people would cite them as their favorite.

(From TPM) Reporters did try to get Romney to hint at who he will choose as a running mate. But so far Mitt’s been tight-lipped. Some journalists suggest the number of Wikipedia edits a contender’s page gets predicts the chances for the VP slot. If that’s the case, "We could be looking at Vice President Season 6 of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,'" Stephen Colbert said.

on bullshit:

http://www.salon.com/2012/08/08/the_journalistic_mind/

If it's Ryan, then it would be the first election since 1920 in which all major-party candidates (Pres and VP) were from east of the Mississippi and north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Actually, forget the Mason-Dixon Line -- first time that all were east of the Mississippi, period.