Mitt Romney Running Mate Speculation Thread

Not sure how crucial it will be for the #2 to have ironclad rightwing credentials - they're not running a primary campaign anymore and there's nobody who will be running attack ads calling out someone for their Muslim-hiring ways or whatever.

― Doctor Casino, Monday, April 16, 2012 9:39 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a lot of people are already supporting mitt though gritted teeth, if he chooses someone heterodox they may just throw their hands up

he should pick someone from wall st

― lag∞n, Monday, April 16, 2012 8:30 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

shia leboeuf?

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Monday, April 16, 2012 9:41 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

respect

yeah lagoon's getting at what I meant. the base may full-well get behind Romney come October, but it won't be because he picked someone who doesn't pass the purity test.(which is why I lean towards Ryan as the eventual guy, though a nom-politician is intriguing if far-fetched)

Mitt Romney/Miskel Spillman '12

Not sure how crucial it will be for the #2 to have ironclad rightwing credentials - they're not running a primary campaign anymore and there's nobody who will be running attack ads calling out someone for their Muslim-hiring ways or whatever.

― Doctor Casino, Monday, April 16, 2012 9:39 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a lot of people are already supporting mitt though gritted teeth, if he chooses someone heterodox they may just throw their hands up

― lag∞n, Monday, April 16, 2012 9:43 PM Bookmark

I'd like to think that but it's also like - who is going to go out of their way to loudly and repeatedly remind the Republican electorate that this person is heterodox, remember the gritted teeth etc...I mean compared to the ads Mitt will be running round the clock reminding them of the importance of BEATING OBAMA I'm just not convinced it can do much either way....

who was the last veep choice who might've tipped an election?

don't mean shit

I think that's generally true

gore prob coulda won w/ a less shitty pick tho

who was the last veep choice who might've tipped an election?

don't mean shit

this is generally true. when you're the lead charger in your battalion and everyone's looking to your for direction, then your choice of a running mate doesn't mean much. but when you're a weak, "acceptable", work-with-what-you-got compromise candidate, a firebrand partner who can rally the base could make all the difference. i'm assuming that's gonna be the GOP and romney's strategy, anyway...

who was the last veep choice who might've tipped an election?

don't mean shit
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, April 17, 2012 5:37 AM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

More than that, how many presidential campaigns were tipped by one single campaign decision/moment? Would need to be a pretty close race.

I think vice presidential choices are on par with the convention speech but probably well below the first debate.

Arrrrrrre ya serious? How quickly we forget the rogue wave that almost certainly demolished whatever little chamce might've had in '08.

The fuck. Stupid phone. "whatever chance McCain might've had"

McCain did a great job of sinking his own campaign, but Palin was the cherry on top.

gore prob coulda won w/ a less shitty pick tho

yeah Joementum was my first possible exception

of course, Gore did "win" the election in many ways and blew it in many others

yeah thats more a case of the race being super close than leiberman having a large negative effect

but the underlying point stands tho, in that whatever effect the vp has its marginal enough that it would prob only matter in an unusually close election

xp

Arrrrrrre ya serious? How quickly we forget the rogue wave that almost certainly demolished whatever little chamce might've had in '08.

― Harried Ice Craw (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, April 17, 2012 6:21 AM (16 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Obama would have won anyway. McCain did dumb shit like suspending his campaign.

Palin was the cherry on top.

whew -- I resisted obvious joek

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/the-overrated-vice-presidential-home-state-effect/

seems pretty otm

Sullivan: "A sad excuse: Romney was so obviously the likely candidate we hacks did our best to come up with other possible scenarios. It was called 'keeping hope awake.'" Perfect--sums up the last two or three Republican threads on here.

Speaking of hacks, I heard Gary Bauer on NPR this morning praise the Palin choice because she's pro-choice. Assuming he's not repeating Beltway drivel because it's expected of him, why on earth would he think it matters whether a veep is pro-choice or eats babies with chocolate syrup? Unless you're Cheney, a veep has no policy-making power

well for what it's worth for mccain it might have 'mattered more' because he had a not totally insignificant % chance of dying in office

McCain did dumb shit like suspending his campaign.

btw in re: this, what the fuck was that, really? I can only see two readings: one, he was sincere in his belief that the work in Washington required him to stop campaigning and focus; or, two, he thought that if he did that and Obama didn't, it'd make him look good enough to voters who weren't already going to vote for him, and in the media, to have a positive effect on the campaign. Which seems literally insane to me.

xp - Particularly if Sarah Palin had a microphone in front of her for 4 years.

well he had to do something i guess

i wonder why he thought anyone would believe his 'suspension' would have any meaning

xp

that whole period of the mccain campaign was nonsense. he was in the weeds.

Speaking of hacks, I heard Gary Bauer on NPR this morning praise the Palin choice because she's pro-choice.

I believe you mean "anti-choice" A

there was less to lose when you're clearly behind late in the game, might as well try some stupid stunt

'there is' makes that sentence more readable

Also I dunno, if you think that Mitt Romney is just casting around for any idea or moral stance at all, maybe you think putting someone with strong moral stances that you agree with as his veep is a good idea?

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.