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Mitt Romney’s search for a running mate appears to have narrowed, as clues to whom Romney might select as his No. 2 begin to pile up in the media.
A campaign that prides itself on discipline had, to date, exacted tight control over the process of vetting candidates to serve at the former Massachusetts governor’s No. 2, a fact that Romney bragged on Tuesday.
"I get a kick out of some of the speculation that goes on," Romney told Sean Hannity of Fox News in an interview to air this evening. "I'm not going to comment on the process of course, but I can tell you this: only Beth Myers and I know who is being vetted."
That comment came amid new reports on Tuesday that Marco Rubio, the popular Florida Republican senator, had not been asked – yet, at least – to submit the materials typically associated with vetting a vice presidential candidate.
Sen. Marco Rubio, (R-FL), discusses the housing market in Florida; how the US can profit from free trade agreements in Latin America and why the nation needs to update its immigration laws.
ABC News initially reported that Rubio wasn’t being vetted, and the Washington Post followed up with indications that Rubio hadn’t made it past an initial review by Romney’s high command.
Romney’s quip to Fox served as a knowing acknowledgement, though, of what members of the media have encountered in their search for details on the veepstakes: News is fleeting, largely because the Romney campaign’s high command keeps details on lockdown.
Even some of the most plugged in advisers to Romneyworld profess genuine ignorance of the vetting process.
Myers, Romney’s former chief of staff as governor, is leading the search for a prospective vice president. She might lack some of the skills of political figures previously tasked with her job – John McCain had power lawyer A.B. Culvahouse lead his vetting in 2008 – but Myers is described as a figure whom Romney holds in high esteem. She was selected precisely because it would mean no leaks, and because she understands Romney and his desire for an experienced vice presidential candidate who won’t overshadow the top of the ticket.
Other broad contours of the process have emerged, too. A New York Times story earlier this week floated the idea that Romney could introduce his choice in July, well before the Republican convention in August. Most presidential nominees traditionally reveal their choice of a running mate shortly before their nominating convention.
Larry Downing / Reuters
GOP candidate Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign event at the Bavarian Inn Lodge in Frankenmuth, Mich.
The Times also included a kicker paragraph that suggested that the Romney campaign might be wary of selecting Chris Christie, since the bombastic New Jersey governor might threaten to overshadow Romney.
One informal Romney adviser suggested that a candidate who’s seen his stock improve is former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, in part because Pawlenty would do anything but overshadow Romney. A runner-up in the 2008 veepstakes, Pawlenty is said to be especially appealing to Ann Romney, who’s built a rapport with Pawlenty’s wife, Mary.
Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan are also generally perceived as short-listers for Romney. Each of them, along with Pawlenty, joined Romney for portions of his swing-state bus tour over the last five days.
Officially, most of the Republicans thought to be candidates for the vice presidency have also declined to comment on the process.
"I won't discuss the vice presidential process, out of respect for Gov. Romney," Rubio said Tuesday on CNBC. "I know he is going to make a great choice."
That means that, until the pick is made known, observers are more likely to learn about the process through candidate attrition. Case in point: Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels agreed to become the next president of Purdue University, removing his name from the list of candidates, though he wasn’t ever seen as Romney’s likely running mate.
MSNBC's Alex Wagner and the NOW panel discuss the progress of the Romney bus tour and a new report that says that Marco Rubio has not been vetted for Mitt Romney's running mate.
The few-and-far-between details stand in contrast to the McCain campaign in 2008, which had basically broadcast publicly that the Arizona Republican wished to select his friend, the independent Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, as his running mate. With the exception of McCain’s ultimate selection of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee, much about the Republican’s campaign wasn’t secret.
The Romney campaign seems determined to learn from McCain’s mistakes, maybe even to a fault. The process of vetting a vice presidential candidate can be political in its own right; look no further than a top Rubio advocate’s pushback to BuzzFeed about the Florida senator’s supposed exclusion from Romney’s short list.
But in leaking few details about their search, the Romney campaign also loses out on an opportunity to show they’ve at least made an effort to seek out various candidates whose mere consideration might be needed to placate certain corners of the party.
In particular, few women except for New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte – a freshman lawmaker from New England with only scant federal experience – are thought to be under consideration by Romney.
"I think, unfortunately, Palin poisoned the well on that," said one informal Romney adviser, fretting that any woman selected as VP would draw inevitable comparisons to the former Alaska governor. "I would guess if I were inside the Romney mind that they're worried that any woman chosen will be subjected to a higher level of scrutiny. "
But beyond Rubio, there are virtually no candidates for the vice presidential slot who would represent any diversity on the Republican ticket, a dicey proposition given Romney’s political deficits with women and Latino voters, as well as his opponent this fall: the nation’s first black president.
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Not to mention he has become dictator obama.. He makes his own rules as he goes..Congressd ..Whats that??? Hey..Hows that balanced budget going??? Sure glad he took the deficit and halfed it.. !! Where we at now 2.5 Trillion?
Well got to take a good healthy obama and unlike a liberal leftiest handout hog .. I wipe my biden and flush the pelosi ..Not to mention wash my barney frank!!! I'll be back!
What you meant to say was to cleanse your Michele Bachmann.
Obama/ Biden 2012
Somebody posted earlier that Clinton left a surplus in the treasury. Now it has become my goal to enlighten you turkeys to the fact that Clinton left a 5.8 trillion national debt.
Go ahead, Ricky, make up your lies...
Explain how that is a lie.
Rick, you're not a very smart person are you? The budget surplus that people talk about is annual budgets that were less than revenue. Nobody ever claimed that Clinton eliminated the debt that existed before his presidency. The $5.8 trillion of which you speak was national debt, not budgets. Thank Reagan and Bush Sr. for that $5.8 trillion.
VirginiaDemocrat78
#182.3
Where is your head? When Clinton took office the debt was $4,188,092,107,183.60. When he left office the debt was $5,727,776,738,304.64 and that includes the surpluses.
So you say you know better. I have had some real dummies argue with me that there could be no debt if there was a budget surplus. You seem to know the difference but you don't seem to realize that debt went up under Clinton as well.
First Read is the biggest joke on NBC
How is it people really believe Obama is doing a good job? Just look at the numbers, they don't lie. Our deficit is out of control and Obama is going to make a bad situation worse. He's already proven that.
ABO - who cares who's on the ticket with Romney? Just get Obama out - we can't afford four more year of Obama!
proud,
Incorrect. What America cannot afford is a return to the Republican policies that got us in this mess in the first place. Thank goodness that Obama holds such a commanding lead on the electoral map. Romney has no path to 270, it's mathematically impossible for him to win!
Proud, you surely realize that VD is full of crap, do you not?
You probably are in the middle, upper middle class, PS. Well gess wat, u wil obtain much less on your check then u do now, under the Romney plan. Whether payrol, govt. under Mitt, the rich will always excel, and always off the baks of guys like u, and I. Dont know bout you, but I'll pass. Im not that stupid, ARE YOU?!
Proud??? De Que??? You can't be serious if your proud and hispanic if you're rooting for Romney who thinks little of your pride or hispanic background unless he can gain something out of it, like his trying to get a VP of Latin surnme for his use, not your benefit. Look at the forest and get around that tree man.
If by chance Obama gets re-elected. We still have the Mayan calender to get us out of this mess!
This wold solve the problem of Obama serving a second term.
By chance? Obama is the odds on favorite. The president holds a commanding lead on the electoral map, and as the Electoral College is the sole means by which we elect presidents, this is good news for the nation, Mitt Romney will never be our president.
Race statisically deadlocked and VD has been in the koolaid again!
Bloomberg has the President up by 13.......
Obama could win this...............if his handlers find a way to keep him hidden until after the election.
Here is the truth about the war hero John McCain. If he hadn't been shot down and become a POW, he would have been court martial-ed for disobeying direct orders and dereliction of duty.
http://www.laprogressive.com/mccain-the-war-hero-has-no-clothes/
How do we tell if the article is another NBC doctored report??? I mean, how many people have they fired for false documentation? And now Andrey Mitchell, in an attempt to cover the doctored report, gives a false report!!!
I'm wondering, does PMS-NBC have any REAL reporters??? When a real report asks the little dictator a question, he gets ridiculed!!!
Right like Fox "News" has ever put 5 minutes into researching a report. lol
Well, 2 studies now show that Fox News viewers are less informed on current events than those who watch no news at all.
And those two studies were done by Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews.
It's Rubio, Pawlenty puts you to sleep and Portman is duller than him
Hypothetically, if Marco Rubio were not an American citizen and could not provide
food for his family, he says he would cross the border illegally to come to the United
States.
While discussing immigration policy in his new memoir, An American Son, Rubio
called for "common decency" in dealing with undocumented immigrants and said
that if put in a similar position as those who are fleeing destitution, he would break
the law, too.
Rubio, a member of a political party that has largely opposed efforts to extend a
path to citizenship to those in the country without documentation, has been
crafting his own version of an immigration reform bill that would let some children
of undocumented immigrants avoid being deported.
Rubio is considered a possible vice presidential running mate for Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who spent the primary season voicing
opposition to an immigration plan that would give those who came illegally
permanent residency or citizenship without returning to their home country first.
He is not going to choose Rubio.......he would way overshadow Romney.....more like a Pawlenty or Portman, they know how to bow to wealth.
How can anyone vote for a con-artist for President who won't tell you where he stands on the issues and won't release his tax returns for public scrutiny like every other President has done for the past 50 years?
Hypothetically, if Marco Rubio were not an American citizen and could not provide
food for his family, he says he would cross the border illegally to come to the United
States.
While discussing immigration policy in his new memoir, An American Son, Rubio
called for "common decency" in dealing with undocumented immigrants and said
that if put in a similar position as those who are fleeing destitution, he would break
the law, too.
Rubio, a member of a political party that has largely opposed efforts to extend a
path to citizenship to those in the country without documentation, has been
crafting his own version of an immigration reform bill that would let some children
of undocumented immigrants avoid being deported.
Rubio is considered a possible vice presidential running mate for Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who spent the primary season voicing
opposition to an immigration plan that would give those who came illegally
permanent residency or citizenship without returning to their home country first.
Mitt Romney's greatest attributes:
1.) a (4) deferment Vietnam draft dodging coward who claims he was a Mormon Missionary for GOD and moved to France until the war ended.
2.) So much of a believer in this country, he moved millions of dollars into Swiss and Cayman off shore bank accounts
3.) Refuses to release his 1040 Tax returns and won't even give a mickey-mouse excuse for not doing so.
Romney, above all is a bald faced liar, a 1%er, bashes gays, a cop impostor, preaches Mormonism to dodge the draft, hides his loot offshore and his wife says he's crazy and wild. Now that's a resume fit for a Pres.
Let's not forget the way he led a posse of fascist thugs to hold down a flower child in high school while he performed a symbolic castration with scissors, cutting the kid's har--then laughed about it 4o+ years later. He's a bully and sociopath.
lol Pick Rubio. Latinos know exactly what Rubio is, a fake, an "impostor"
Rubio is of Cuban descent. Most Latin Americans are of Central American descent and can't stand Cubans. Besides polls show that it doesn't matter who Romney picks, nobody can help him win this election. Obama holds a commanding lead on the electoral map that is insurmountable.
Mexicans, Haitians and Puerto Ricans don't like Cuban's because they get a free pass.....you know the one foot on dry land rule for them........but not for anybody else.
Senator John McCain stated yesterday that the US needs to lead a coalition into
Syria and defeat Assad. Yessir, the Repubs cannot stand it without a fresh war
starting, which will yield freshly killed military people, and, if they are lucky,
some freshly maimed soldiers.
One might think such an invasion might piss off their number one ally, Iran. It is not
good enough that Iraq and Afghanistan are either over or winding down, here we go
into Syria, and possibly Iran!
In fact, given the prettiness of the potential running mates, and their photogenic matchups with Romney, I'd say he's at least a narcissistic pansy, however straight he may want to seem.
I'd give Obama an "A" on foreign policy, and wouldn't bother grading him on the economy since that is something he has very little control over. Americans who are holding him responsible for the state of the economy are idiots, plain and simple. A word to the Republican House elected in the 2010 mid-terms ... where are the jobs you promised us in order to get elected? I don't see Obama obstructing you from proposing sweeping and meaningful long-term legislation to kick-start the economy. You're not getting my vote for your BS "anyone but Obama" rhetoric. Actions speak louder than words.
Ya, I am stickin with President Obama too.
To either "Zippy the Pinhead," "Bozo the Clown", or any other RWNJ goober?
Failin' Palin (Quitter, Whore) seems to be the best candidate for Mit (The Git) Romney.
Today I saw somethin that solidified my decision to vote for Barack Obama. Today, he should me a prime example of the difference between a contender, and a pretender. Obama showed the true definition of a leader. While the pretender (Mitt Romney) was baking pies and cookies with his wife in Michigan, tryin his very best to look like a normal human being, instead of the robot that the right is attempting to create. The contender (Obama) was in Mexico, with countries of the G20. Predident Obama sat in a 2 hr. meeting with Predident Putin of Russia, the U.S.'s number one geo-nuclear threat, according to Romney. The body language I saw with the Predident showed a stearn Barack Obama confidently holding his ground, with grace, style, and a firm resolve, made me proud seeing my Predident lead the way. That talk with Putin I believe was the reason the Ruskies turned around a cargo of gunships and weapons to Syria. Why the Russians would do that in first place is beyond reason.Dont think the Russians like Romney as much as they like Obama. So when the GOP puppet was makin cookies in the shape of "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" Michigan, our President was showing true leadership at the G20. Leading the way, were all the other leaders admired and would emulate. Barack leads, Romney cannot connect with 98%ers. Dont think he wants too. Dont think the 2%ers will let. DISGUSTING!
Why would anyone who is rich want to run a country? One answer, just wants his name on the list of Presidents, why else. He does not care about the people of America, only the rich friends he has or those he thinks he can fool. Americans, we need to look around us, weigh everything before we make a terrible mistake. I am neither Dem or Rep however I look and listen to all those who want my fate in their hands and Mitt Romney is one I do not want to flip me around. I do vote for the best man and the President has my vote. I will stick with him and trust God to help him make the right choices for me, a faithful American who leads a simple life.
They all are no better than pond scum, Obama and Romney maybe slightly better than the garbage in Congress but not much. Rubio is Cuban so his parents are here legaly all Cubans are, they just have to be "foot dry" and it is automatic. A cuban would be a good politician for the US, they are naturals at screwing over their people, why do you think there was a revolution. Cuba was nothing but the whorehouse of the Carribbean at the time. The ethinic make-up actually changed as all of the light skinned cubans left. Most latinos don't like cubans either so just more scum with more scum. The only thing more disgusting than the trash we have for leadership is that we elected them. Perhaps we could stop being Republicans or Democrats or Progressives or Tea party and start being Americans for a change. If we don't this country will completly be a reflection of our leadership, garbage. This country is always about 51% to 49% in elections so maybe we actually have to comprimise or actually find people from the center that don't take their marching orders from either the public employee unions or grover norquist
Dan....why not take your bigotry and hatred back to your home country? Your President Imadinnerjacket would welcome you back to Iran
doesn't matter who Romney picks, with a weak economy he wins in landslide fashion, especially with the new campaign laws where billionaires can basically buy an election, even the presidentcy. I wouldn't doubt if Romney takes 48 states, especially if gas gets up to 5 bucks a gallon come labor day.
You think the voters are that stupid?
Not a Troll?
I hope the men in the white coats get to you before you hurt yourself!
This is the main political headline? Why is MSNBC burying the Holder contempt of congress vote story?
The corrupt Republican corporates are trying to select their VP candidate NOT ON QUALIFICATIONS, but on how many votes they can grab for exlax ETCH-A-SKETCH. They lost the LATINO votes so they're dropping Rubio! IS THIS CORRUPTION OR WHAT? They certainly are NOT looking out for the 99% American People, their ONLY CONCERN is their STOCKHOLDERS & CEO'S, THE ONE PERCENTERS! The hell with us!
99% American People, vote 100% STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC and let's rid ourselves of their "HAND-PICKED" political puppets! We have a true leader that has received ZERO cooperation from the Republican Congress & their OIL & FINANCIAL corporates have brought on our ECONOMIC COLLAPSE! All because of CAPITALISTIC GREED with ZERO GOVERNMENTAL CONTROL!
Mitch Daniels was not an invited Bilderberg attendee in anticipation of becoming president of Purdue.