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PORTAGE, Mich. -- It's possible that Tim Pawlenty is days from stepping onto a stage before thousands of cheering supporters as Mitt Romney's newly-minted running mate. But you wouldn't know it from his swing through central Michigan on Wednesday, where the former governor appeared at nondescript campaign offices and addressed just dozens of supporters as they snacked on cookies and lemonade.
"Mitt Romney didn't spend his entire life in government," Pawlenty said to a small group of GOP devotees in Jackson. "He knows how to get jobs going."
Who will Mitt Romney pick as his running mate? NBC's Claire Leka reports.
Even after dutifully delivering laugh lines – like calling the president "all foam and no beer" – Pawlenty didn't escape "veep" speculation from his audience, with one supporter in Jackson asking him if he'll return to the state as vice president.
"I've been back to Michigan a fair amount," he demurred. "But as to the vice presidential thing, we'll know soon enough."
Devoid of the camera platforms and elaborate sound systems typically on hand for political celebrities' events, Pawlenty's appearances showed him to be anything but a campaign diva. When the fold-up table he was supposed to sit behind in Portage was in the wrong place, he helped to carry it to a more suitable spot. When a portable microphone in Jackson proved too loud for backers' ears, he ditched it over the complaints of reporters eager to record his every word.
"We don't want them to get the sound!" he joked to the crowd.
The trip, which involved an early morning flight to the Great Lake State and several hours of trekking in an SUV driven by an aide, showed Pawlenty's talents as an approachable and disciplined pol even as national reporters dogged him with questions about the vice presidential selection process.
Is he stopping by Romney's Boston headquarters on his way to his scheduled New Hampshire events this weekend?
"I'm flying into Boston and then traveling immediately up to New Hampshire to start [my] schedule."
Will he be meeting VP selection guru Beth Myers?
"We have a policy, the campaign just doesn't talk about the vice presidential vetting process."
How's the process going?
He rattled off the names of GOP up-and-comers, scattering in other possible Romney running mates including women and minorities breathing new life into the GOP: Susanna Martinez, Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley, Bob McDonnell, Chris Christie, Rob Portman and Paul Ryan.
"And David Petraeus," he added, perhaps a sly nod to a flurry of speculation that surrounded a now-debunked story on the Drudge Report that the CIA director was in the running for the job.
Jim Cole / AP
Widely regarded as one of the Romney campaign's most loyal surrogates, Pawlenty insisted Wednesday that there's no job title that motivates his determined campaigning on behalf of a man he once fought against for the GOP nod.
"The objective here isn't about a position or about some title for any of the candidates or the people trying to help. We are trying to get the country back on the right track," he said. "For me that's meant doing things like this as a volunteer where I can go out and speak on Gov. Romney's behalf in places where he can't be."
And many of those places aren't glitzy, politically or economically. In past years, Jackson has suffered a poverty rate twice that of Michigan as a whole. The Kalamazoo area clocked in for an Obama win of 20 points in 2008.
As Pawlenty wrapped up a brief stop at a strip-mall campaign office in Portage, his possible second-in-command competitor Sen. Rob Portman was wrapping up an (albeit smaller) event outside of Mile High Stadium in hotly-contested Colorado.
Still, the former governor of Minnesota has one psychological advantage that possible running mates Portman and Paul Ryan lack -- the experience of going through the lengthy vetting process only to be greeted with a "thanks but no thanks."
"In 2008, I was on some speculators' list as John McCain's selection for VP," he told reporters. "It's an honor to be considered. It's an honor for anyone to be considered, but also it has some deja vu qualities since I've been through it before."
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Romney will pick one of these.
Romney- Rubio
Romney-Rice
Romney-Portman
Romney-Cantor
Romney-West
Romney-Pawlenty
Romney-Powell
Romney-Ryan
Any of the above would be better than the "Blind Leading The Blind"
Rice would have been pretty good also charles from wv ....
so who is the blind one?
Other than you elvis?
?
Maybe take your pick .... ??
Bigben, yeah, I added Rice whom I meant to include originally. I added her during the correction time allowance. I think Rice is one of the best picks as far as knowledge, but I'm not sure she can help bring a swing state.
wow i thought i could see..my my never would have known?
I think Rice said a clear no ....
But I like her toughness ....
Does she like fried chicken?
elvis ....
wow
Condaleeza Rice? Allen West?? Are you serious?
Romney is a Mormon, charles, a high-ranking dues-paying Mormon.
Ain't no way in hell that a black person is allowed to ride in the front of Romney's bus.
Click on the link below for an unOfficial photo of Mitt Romney's running mate, Paris Hilton, with a Special campaign message just for YOU!!!
http://www.oneangryman.com/ken/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Paris-Eat-the-Rich.jpg
Beats the fk out of Hillary any day.
Funny. I was thinking the same thing about Palin.
What, that she plays the drums.
Sorry, nothing bothers me more than the incorrect usage of the word "whom."
Touchy little critter ....
Tim Pawlenty is the GOP VP nominee - according to The Colbert Report & Wikipedia.
Really .... ??
bottom line is my eight year old could do a better job then obama / biden/ total lack of any brains what so ever in the words of biden this is a big f#%$@ deal the only deal that was is the worst piece of legalization in US history bye bye libbs times up
Your 8 year old could write a coherent sentence...something you can't do.
Dude you sound stupid. You don't know jack about the law. Only what the Republicans and insurance industry tells you. Insurance companies spent over a hundred million dollars trying to stop the Affordable Care Act. Try using your brain for once. Why would insurance companies do that? Let me guess...you think they care about the average citizen. (lol) Good comedy.
Biden tells all of America that Obama is clueless and learning on the job would be very devastating to America.
Obama then picks Biden as his VP.
Hillary said Obama wasn't ready for the job and was very unqualified.
Obama picks Hillary as his Secretary of State.
Really, maybe he should be Romney's running mate and you can be his chauffeur^^.
Hillary dances like a tard in front of South Africans...looked just like Elaine's Thumb Dance in Seinfeld. What a dwebette.
Jon-Jon,
Careful, little man, Hillary IS coming. Do you honestly think she WON'T be your President in four years? It's as much of a certainty as the extent of your undeniable ignorance.
That glass ceiling is coming DOWN in 2016.
MSNBCMFE,
I doubt Hillary will be a candidate in 2016. She had her shot and blew it. I'd personally like to see someone like Senator Mark Warner as the Democratic candidate in 2016. Who knows who the GOP will run, Mitt's losing this election so he won't get another chance.
Everyone knows Obama's getting the boot ....
Hey V-Dem,
I know that you favor Warner, but hear me out.
Rare is the opportunity, sad to say, for a woman to be seriously considered for the Office of the President. Even more rare, and again sadly, is the opportunity for a truly qualified woman to be so considered.
The full weight of American history rides upon Hillary's shoulders in the run-up to 2016 and will factor enormously in the calculus leading up to her decision. Tens of millions of young women, and more than one hundred and sixty million American women in total, have GOT to be asking, "When will our time come?"
Ladies, your time is 2016 and it will prove to be none too soon. We men have honked things up far too much and for far too long.
Hillary has the grace, the grit, and the guts.
She has indisputable credentials.
She has fought through difficult times, both personally and professionally, largely in full public view, and has never failed to answer the call to serve.
She has, at times, been forced by events to scale back ambitions and swallow an enormous amount of personal pride. She has, at other times, been swept aside by equally powerful historical forces.
Yet still she participates. She contributes.
She is, in short, a 21st Century American patriot, and she will not allow this opportunity to pass quietly into the night. It means too much to too many, and it may not come again for decades.
Mr. Warner, if he's deserving, may get his chance to run; Hillary IS deserving and will TAKE hers. For her NOT to run would violate every fabric of her being, and we as a people would always wonder what might have been.
It's funny....Have you ever heard anyone other than a White person talk about Obama's transcripts? It seems Whites are the only group who can't grasp the correlation between funding an undergraduate education and law degree with scholarships (keyword) and loans and graduating magna cum laude (3.80-3.89). Do the White thing, say he didn't graduate Summa Cum Laude and that makes him stupid. (lol)
His almost last 4 years makes you wonder if he ever even went to school .... "LOL"
GOP, So, you saw all this on his college transcripts? Allen West has questioned his transcripts. So have plenty of people that graduated in from Harvard and Columbia supposedly with Obama.
Want to nknow something even funny-er? Now this is a HOOT!!! Three-maybe Four ago DNA samples were taken from ALL the people... From ALL the NATIONS of the Earth were analyzed. And guess what the results showed!?!? It showed that ALL humanity ORIGINATED from a tiny spot, a tiny TRIBE in CENTRAL AFRICA. Now, isn't that hoot! That's pretty cool, we're all bothers and sisters after all.
That explains why I'm black from the waist down.
charles,
...and yellow up the spine.
What's wrong with Mike Huckabee? He'd make a great VP and then he could step up to President when the time came. He'd turn this country around in no time.
yep..fascism in the name of God?
elvis, if Bush didn't cut your check, neither will Romney. Re-elect Obama and you will soon run out of other peoples money.
I'm looking out for you as well as me.
I thought MSNBC was gay the way they deleted posts, damn, NBC News has even tighter panties when you don't post something they agree with. But hell, have someone censor their trash and they are screaming for their journalistic Constitutional rights. Want to talk fuggin hypocrites?
Fiesty is always first because she is an MSNBC plant. Posting is her job.
With her obvious lack of intelligence, she writes their stories probably.
And if Fiesty is the best they can come up with they are in serious trouble.
"LOL"
what kind of story's do y'all have???oh nothing.hahahahaha
I have this one about elvis being a pain. Your ole lady probably told it a million times though.
yep I bet you wish you were her ..huh
Nah, I know Elvis is dead. At least brain dead. You've proved it a number of times.
waiting for your great story..is it called broke back tea party story
Nope, Broke Black President Administration.
Romney would be disgusted with some of the Conservative's nasty, "hate" posts.....at least, he should be.
He's too busy being disgusted with liberals. Who in their right mind isn't.
...and there you go....
nasty here
nasty below
You can call names but it is out of the question anyone else can...Use your basic liberal ideology often there do ya RI? Tell me how you gave birth to a state by the way while you're at it. Labor took awhile I take.
Makes her pretty old too.
my point to a tee all you stupid lib have nothing to say wait bush did it ah ah the economy ah ah bush did it world affairs ah ah bush did it gay rights ah ah bush did it right ?? oh wait he didn't do that we did right ? you idiots have nothing else to say well we do and when we vote your so called president out of office then maybe you'll listen a little better when I say the adults are back in control!!
BTW
Well http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/ gives
the election over
and that is up from 70.2% when I checked 2 days ago.
To 'let me say,'
Put a comma in your comment, dumb@!$%#.
Let me say,
my point to a tee all you stupid lib have nothing to say wait bush did it ah ah the economy ah ah bush did it world affairs ah ah bush did it gay rights
(I do say, I have to respect someone who manages his time well and places his collective thoughts in order--I tip my to you sir!)
Actually I've been asked to be Miltie's running mate. Hah! You never saw that coming did you. I'd make a darn fine VP. Oh fried beans. For those of you taking this post seriously, don't. I was just jackin' with ya. I'm just a good old southern boy who likes to crack a joke and have a little hootch on the side. God Bless the USA.
Einie, meanie,mienie, moe here we go further down the hole, niether one of these schlocks are for the rest of US. Ronnie's trickle is sure stimulating us, read his script just like a good movie star, question is whose running the SHOW?
VOTE ALL THE SELF RIGHTEOUS INCUMBENTS OUT, SO THAT THOSE BIG MOTHA$ HAVE TO GREASE MORE....
I love the photo. Dumb and dumber with suits on. Maybe Mitt will buy a scooter they can ride around on to campaign if Pawlenty is the "chosen one". LOL
Oh yea, Obama and Biden are the Einstein's of the political arena...lmao...
Click on the link below for an unOfficial photo of Mitt Romney's running mate, Paris Hilton, with a Special campaign message just for YOU!!!
http://www.oneangryman.com/ken/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Paris-Eat-the-Rich.jpg
Anyone Romney chooses is okay with me. They will beat Big Ears and Big Mouth in November.
Maybe bigbenalaska should be Romney's running mate (he is really Grafalco, the prancing horsie's alt). He gets paid in oats, cuts the lawn for free, and fertilzes it, too.
He had learned one word, "LOL" and has buttons he presses for the canned Republican talking points he repeats hour after hour, day after day, except when he is on lunch hour serving up Lattes for Romney's rich buddies. What say you bigbenalaska?
I would vote for Romney/Big Ben ticket in a second. They have my vote.
Here's another reason why Obama will WIN and Romney will lose.
The last incumbent Democratic President to lose his re-election was Jimmy Carter in 1980.
Carter lost because he was a weak President and Ronald Reagan was a strong challenger.
Regardless of what anyone on this blog says, President Obama is not a weak President as Carter was. But, even if he was, and to appease the anti-Obama people here, lets say Obama is as weak now as Carter was in 1980 (even though he is not), the FACT remains,
Unfortunately, Mitt Romney is the DEFAULT Republican candidate who, during the Republican Primaries, nobody except a core 20 - 27% voters wanted. The most frequent campaign cry during the Republican Primaries was
Now you are stuck with Romney, and like I said before,
Face it! It's going to be President Obama for FOUR MORE YEARS!
Funny, neither Biden or Hillary thought Obama was worth chit before he was elected either. Go figure.
You gotta love the way Romney has the Liberals and Media twisting the wind. You would think he put them in a round room and told them to urinate in the corner. Yeah, the Liberals are going nuts because they cannot get a handle on Romney. Guess the man is too smart for the jackasses.
Romney 2012 A thinking person's president.
Sorry Larry, but it's more like:
Romney, puppet prince of a false theology.
Ask any true Christian.
hmmm, he never reponds to me for some reason.....
I wish i was born in America like the tea party
I'm glad you weren't.
yeah i was born in Russia you can see my house from your house??
If I could, I'd move.
what stopping you oh that's right trump don't pay much for a door man huh?
More than the cardboard sign you carry on that freeway off ramp pays.
can you say that in english??im not the one who wants to move?
You're in Russia, just stay there.
Ok rogers??
Has his $60,000 a year telecom. job during his run for gov. come into question?I'm waiting for proof he did anything but draw a paycheck.
Kind of like Obama's last 4 years basically, right.
Mitt: PLEASE pick Pawlenty! I can see it now: The movie made about your soon-to-be-failed campaign will be entitled, "Boring and Even More Boring!"
Wow, all by yourself on that one did ya. Zinger...
hey jon..can you think....give yourself a nose job now.its ok you can thump it on the floor its your house?
You're almost as impressive with zingers as Lavaman Elvis. You wear your jumpsuit when you spin those.
nah i don't eat Twinkies?
Come on elvis, you eat them deep fried. Look at that gut of yours.
OK you got me rogers
Tim ran for president and was knocked out early. Does that make him undesirable or unelectable based on his track record? Why would Mitt give him a 2nd chance when the voters didnt?
The tea party has seen the light now
Someone has to turn them back on after Obama has shut everything down.
T Paw !!!! LOL!!!
Makes Vanilla look, and sound,... exciting...
Pawlenty is a bit bland.. not really all that bright... not an inspiring speaker... and would be
PERFECT for willard !!!!!
Go T Paw !!!!!
rope a dope..Romney's new slogan
He's going to lasso Obama at the rodeo?
Dr. Seus says:
(p.s. Some people think that Dr. Seus passed away in 1991, but that's not really true. Like Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, and herpes, Dr. Seus shall live on forever and keep writing great verse like the one above. Actually, this was written by Bruce-1628250 while channelling Dr. Seus.)
I like green eggs
That's basically about the level Obama channels for his policies. How appropriate.
WOW. That's copy-write material. T-Shirts.. Sweatshirts... Bumper-stickers... New York to California. Get the message out! Colleges are starting soon too. I'd buy one!
It will be Pawlenty for VP mark my words. He's coming from MN which makes him the perfect candidate for WI votes which is starting to go towards the GOP. Being as Half of WI population still gets it's news from Minnesota the residence of Wisconsin will be very familiar with Tim Pawlenty. And since this earlier this year all eyes were on WI for it's 2 re-call elections (the 1st for the recall of a republican senator, Shelia Harsdorff & the next recall of republican governor Walker), which turned into a huge failure for the democrats, but a big suprise for the GOP. Pawlenty is coming off of 2 terms as govenor of Minnesota where he was won both his elections by large numbers. People in MN like him as do the people of Western Wisconsin. Both states tend to lean towards the democratic party for president, but in recent elections have shown some favor in the GOP. So with Pawlenty, who was if not liked by all, was at least respected by both rep's and dem's. His choice as VP could play a huge part in this years election. Especially if he can swing both states towards the republicans. That's why I believe he will be the selected VP running mate.
New Hollywood Lackluster movie in the works: a lukewarmandyellow production
Wherever morbidly wealthy aristocrats feign oppression,
Gaffe-man is there to crush the impoverished masses, and defend the entitled few from the statutes of regulation and fair taxation!
From his tax-sheltered hide-out in the Cayman Islands,
Gaffe-man stands ready to respond whenever summoned by the Koch brothers to wrong a right and fight for the 1%!
Yeah. Trickle-down economics will work this time!
Get your umbrella ready! (and Gaffe-man doesn't need your help, because he has his own car elevator and his MAGIC UNDERWEAR!!!)
This film has been rated XXXX for obvious reasons!
must be a slow new's day...
Um, since when is there an apostrophe in the word "news"? (Yes, it's a slow news day, otherwise I'd have something better to say than being critical of grammar.)
VADemo, It's about time you started picking on grampar instead. He can take it.