VP deadline looming, Republicans weigh in

Mitt Romney.

/ FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/GettyImages

(CBS News) With just weeks to go until the Republican National Convention this August, the Mitt Romney veep-watch is on full throttle - and not everyone in the peanut gallery is content to sit back and wait for the presumptive GOP nominee to announce his decision. With polls neck-and-neck and a decision impending, members of the Republican establishment are offering up their unsolicited advice as to who they think he should put on the ticket.

Romney has been consistently mum on the decision, revealing few clues to his thought process. But he's largely avoided addressing the endless cycle of speculation and gossip surrounding the subject: Asked in a recent interview with NBC's Brian Williams if he planned to pick an "incredibly boring white guy," as has been suggested, Romney laughed off the suggestion: "You told me you were not available," he quipped.

(Boehner and Portman slam Obama on taxes in recent speeches in video on the left.)

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who Bloomberg recently described as "the best of the boring white guys," is widely believed to be near the top of Romney's short-list.

House Speaker John Boehner seems to be pushing for that option. In an interview with Fox News Friday morning, the Ohio Republican touted his Buckeye State colleague as a potentially "great asset" for Romney.

"I'm partial to Rob Portman," he said. "I've been a long-time friend. He's a United States senator from Ohio, served as the director of Office of Management and Budget under George W. Bush, also served as the U.S. trade rep, served in the House of Representatives as well. Knows his way around Washington, and I think he'd be a great asset for Governor Romney."

Portman, who could help Romney's chances in the crucial battleground state of Ohio, is widely seen as a solid, if unexciting, bet.

But a number of prominent Republicans are pulling for Marco Rubio, the Cuban-American Republican Senator from Florida, who has a solidly conservative background and could wield his influence with two crucial demographics: Latinos, and Floridians.

(Romney says Rubio "thoroughly vetted" in video on the left.)

Jeb Bush, the popular former governor from Florida, told the Associated Press that he thinks Rubio is ready to be VP, and that he shared those thoughts with the former Massachusetts governor.

"He's of a different generation," piled on former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, in an interview with Tampa's News Channel 8. Calling Rubio the "most exciting" option on the table, he added: "He makes outreach much more possible to a younger people -- people in their 30s, where the Republican Party has a little bit of a -- of a deficit."

According to the New York Times, Karl Rove and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-K.Y., are also gunning for Rubio.

Ultimately, however, all of the public lobbying can only have so much influence - and for all of the conversations taking place on cable news, as many if not more are almost certainly happening behind the scenes with the Romney campaign. Plus, there's always a certain amount of political calculus involved in how the VP decision is unveiled, and the publicity leading up to it.

"It's not uncommon for there to be a strategy behind pumping someone else up in terms of playing the expectation game and then making a bigger splash with the announcement of someone else," said Republican strategist Trey Hardin. "It could be that the Romney camp is sending folks out there to try to confuse or distract the Obama campaign."

Nevertheless, he argued, the peanut gallery plays an important role in the process.

"I think Romney has a very organized and structured and diligent system in place. They certainly are going through the proper traditional check-list," Hardin said. "But I think a component of that checklist is what other leaders or influencers in the Republican Party think."

Even so, by now, the short-list has likely been winnowed down to just a couple of people - and at the end of the day it will be Romney and his closest advisers making the call.

"When you get down to those last couple of candidates, I think that's when it's Romney sitting across the table from them and just having a feeling and an instinct," Hardin said.

[TimeToEvolve]

The Republicon Party of death and spending is completely failed and obsolete. They have just gone too far extreme to the right to protect the Top 1%. What difference does in make what crazy bozo they pick? They could pick a monkey's butt for VP, the only way any of them get in is by election fraud or bribery by their corporate masters.

[sharkboy234]

rob portman is here or condi rice is here

[occupy_cbs]

Lucky12345678: "WOW, ever thought of entering an "anger management" program!"



I've often wondered that over the past 4 years, about the rabid, far-right teabagging extremists of the republican party of misfits, with all their angry, bigoted and racist slurs towards our first black President -- all of which have shown a huge need for an "anger management program" and a divorce from the fox/rush propaganda!

[Lucky12345678]

Your choice is clear in November, do you want government to control your life and live as the Europeans do in bankruptcy or in a country that has freedom of choice and the ability to buy that super-size soft drink...
Show me the money and you can invest in all the public infrastructure your heart desires, just don't tell me you are going to borrow more money to pay for it, think of ours kids future for once in your life!!!

[TimeToEvolve]

The Republicon party is a failed and obsolete band of violent extremists who want to finish the job of bankrupting the middle class (which includes YOU). So what does it matter what foolish, airheaded moron they select?

[TheFoundersLive]

The Democrat party is a failed and obsolete band of violent extremists who want to finish the job of bankrupting the middle class (which includes YOU).

[hypnotoad72]

Based on what these articles say, Cantor would be a good choice:

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/06/27/eric_cantor_conflict_of_interest/index.html

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/04/14/158424/republican-leaders-debt-limit-hypocrisy/

The latter may be "liberal" but they made their inferences from facts that came from cited, NONPARTISAN sources. If you don't understand that, then that is YOUR problem. Not mine or anyone else's.

[TimeToEvolve]

Cantor? The guy who want to INCREASE the national debt to give even more trillions to the filthy rich? I'm glad you are joking.

[TheFoundersLive]

Lieutenant Colonel Allen West!!

[AnnArbor2]

Lucy, there is no urgency with Romney naming a VP.

By leaving it open, those opposing Romney will expend themselves with denigration and formulating character assassin strategies over a broader range of individuals.

When he names a VP candidate, then his opposition has focus.

Laugh if you will with the selection of Palin in 2008, but MSNBC was hilarious as they tried to rally "we hate her, but we do not know why just yet". CNN, ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS were hilarious when they tried to talk intelligently about Palin when they did not know a darn thing.

I just hope Romney just keeps the media waiting on who they are going to attack.

I am still trying to sort out how it was fine to denigrate, slander, and libel Cain and Rice, but disagreeing with Obama is, "racist". I guess the side that screams "racist" first gets the advantage.

[supernevadasmith]

Ron Paul would help and enhance Romney the most. Not having him would end up being the most detrimental.Ron Paul brings media attenuation and excitement,credibility,charisma and gravitas to an otherwise abhorrently boring candidate.Congressman Paul has ideologically sound credentials.He is much more than Vice-Presidential.Should it become necessary, He's supported by most of the military. No serious candidate would want to not have chosen Ron Paul as most of Paul's positions become the right ones when the "sound and fury" of this election cycle fade.

[hypnotoad72]

Really?

Let's look at this one's website, see what his section headers are, and then look at the details within:

http://www.ronpaul2012.com/the-issues/

His "energy independence" page talks up drilling our vast reserves. That's fine. Why does he say NOTHING about how all the oil we currently drill is sold offshore?! If we have oil issues and want independence, drilling more won't resolve the problem if it's sold to everyone else. And he does not mention these little details, which are ironically simple, despite their complexity... But he can't have both "energy independence" and "free market" in this case. And he, in other areas, hypes up "free market" quite loudly.

http://itsmyocean.org/?p=561
(one site, of many, that says it loud and clear: Drilling more here will do no good for "independence" because a lot of what we already drill is sold on the world market. This simple reality check destroys his claim. Don't blame me. Get him to verify his comments and beliefs, and get them notarized.)

Especially considering,
http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/05/news/economy/gasoline_export/index.htm

We are plenty independent if we're selling tons of the stuff... so what will drilling more do, apart from profit a few at the expense of everyone else that much more quickly?

Many of the sections within his site don't tell the entire story, have oversights, omissions, and the occasional "bait and switch" that have raised the eyebrows of people who have actually read between the lines or at least read what's on his site.

Indeed, "workers' rights" is just anti-union puffery - and we've seen what large corporations will do, so if you're true to your word then I encourage you to come work for me... ;-)

Maybe his staff will update his website, organize it, and provide fair amounts of information to engender some trust. Right now, on a number of issues, it's way too easy to read between the lines - because the content, as you said, is written in very simple terms. Too simple, and on issues where it really doesn't take long to find other facets to the issue that would impede his claimed ideals. He speaks out of both sides of his mouth. He wants things both ways.

Trust must be earned, if we are to take politicians seriously. Once his web site is cleaned up and some coherence generated, I might re-read it. Until then, he's another smoother talking waste of time.

And, going back to his site today, I needn't have altered a single word in this response, which I had composed a few weeks ago.

And anyone can do a search on the phrase "right to work" and find out how quickly union power has eroded in the country, how "right to work" doesn't provide workers anything approaching rights (or middle class pay, or any pay thanks to "unpaid internships").


Be careful what you wish for - those providing the wishes may not be telling the entire truth.

I am a person who will vote for the candidate most likely to help the middle class. Ron Paul is an epic fail, thanks to what Ron Paul authorizes on Ron Paul's own web site. Yes, he says things people want to hear. But will he act on them? Given how flimsy his website's claims are... no.

[thechooch1]

"Romney has been consistently mum" fill in the blank here. His tax returns, what he would specifically do, foreign policy, war in Afghanistan, etc. He is very good at being "mum". All he does is criticize and miss quote.