Aside from his political views disqualifying him, he’s also in his late seventies. While we’ve seen a trend towards older VPs lately, no ones been close to that old. If Paul actually became President, he’d be older his first day in office then our previous oldest President was on his last day.
Romeny will pick a doctrinaire conservative with foreign policy experience and some sort of cred with the Religious Right
I don’t know anyone in particular, but I’m fairly sure it will be a woman.
I doubt it will be Santorum - what states can he deliver to the ticket? Not PA. Santorum’s likely to be on a “short list” as a sop to the Evangelical Right.
Is Carly Fiorina getting any consideration this cycle?
Isn’t she pro-choice? If she is, that alone disqualifies her in the eyes of most Republicans. What states would she bring in for Romney that he wouldn’t already win? Would a Romney/Fiorina ticket bring California into contention?
Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush
I remember when they succeeded. I’ll grant that that’s not the best way to attack a politician, but for better or worse, it worked.
No way, Carly got worked over pretty well in the 2010 Senate race.
Tom Campbell would be a better choice if Mitt wanted a California politician.
Cheney was there to assuage the power base’s fear that Bush was an idiot.
(Honestly Biden served the same purpose for Obama but less “idiot” and more “not a radical”)
Clinton was a big, chubby dude, but had an exuberant personality that his weight wasn’t the first thing you noticed.
Christie… I say this as a fat guy… when I see him my first response is “Look at that fatty.”
Which has what to do with his weight? Bush picked Cheney, not “the power base.” I’ll grant you that Christie is a very heavy guy and probably outweighs Cheney by a lot, but how is this supposed to cost them votes?
Brass tacks? People react negatively to fat people.
Eh. People react negatively to smokers and Obama got elected four years ago. It’s a fat country, and if Christie and the team were that concerned, he could lose weight before and during the campaign and talk about his progress.
Big difference: Obama made sure to almost never smoke while he was making an official appearance, or otherwise out in public, so it’s not at the front of peoples’ minds. Christie is always fat at his appearances, though, so folks can’t help but to notice.
In 2008, McCain picked an out of left field candidate, a female from Alaska who was under ethics violation charges, who barely had any experience whatsoever, and did not have really any good reason to be picked other than that she was pretty and had a vagina. It completely destroyed any of the confidence that independents had in McCain (though he had already been working hard at destroying that image for a while since the beginning of the campaign). Romney, similarly, has worked hard to overcome his more moderate positions and background and if he picks some radical right-winger for VP, he can kiss his independent support goodbye just as McCain did in 2008 by picking Palin.
Exactly.
I predict Bob McDonnell, current governor of VA, who has, through some miracle (sic), been mostly moderate during his term so far.
I think that’s a possible pick, but Rubio helps Romney more.
A Californian only makes sense if California is in play (is it?) AND that person can be reasonably sure to deliver California. Rubio (or Bush, my darkhorse) would both probably deliver Florida.
Rubio has now said “No, I’m not going to be VP.” enough times that I can’t imagine anyone even asking. Jeb hasn’t got the temperament to be a VP. He’s top of the ticket or nothing.
I think the idea that Rubio = lots of Hispanic votes has been greatly overstated. McCain’s campaign made a similar demographic mistake and it didn’t help them at all. A group of people isn’t going to vote for your ticket just because you put someone who looks a little like them or who comes from their home state in the VP slot. On the other hand if Romney wants to reward a supporter whose endorsement made a huge difference in the primary and who will make him look warm and relatable, he make the Restore Our Future super PAC his running mate.