Randi Rhodes Forums

The chatter is building around the Republican Veepstakes with speculation from all corners. From a week ago:

(Snip)Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, who backed Rick Santorum during the Republican primaries, said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that he wants to see Romney choose Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal or former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as his running mate. Gary Bauer, president of American Values, said he's pulling for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, but neither men were given enough time to elaborate.

South Dakota Sen. Thune isn't
ruling anything out:

"I don't think you ever rule out opportunities or options when you're involved in public life and you say you want to make a difference and you're serious about that, obviously, then you don't foreclose options," Sen. John Thune said on Fox News Sunday. "But in my view, I have a job to do in the United States Senate, I like what I'm doing. I think I can make a difference there."

Source tells Politico that Romney plans to play it safe:

Don't expect a Palinesque Hail Mary move from Romney's campaign when it comes to picking his running mate, Politico's Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei report:

[T]he most conscious effort by Romney's team to do things differently will be in the V.P. selection process. One Republican official familiar with the campaign's thinking said it will be designed to produce a pick who is safe and, by design, unexciting — a deliberate anti-Palin. The prized pick, said this official: an "incredibly boring white guy."(More at link)
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/rep ... d=16342671

Other names have also come up. And as the thread title suggests POLLS WORK NOW!!! So vote and comment away! If you have several candidates in mind you may select up to 3.

P.S. Thanks again to Mr. Manzo for fixing the poll option! This poll may really put it to the test as there are the maximum 10 options, you are allowed 3 choices (not the maximum, but seemes reasonable), and you can come back and change your vote later as we learn more. Enjoy!

i think that who he picks as vp will determine whether or not he wants the vote.
allow me to clarify that. i think McCain dropped the ball, i honestly think he knew how many disastrous landmines lay ahead for the next Pres and he didn't want to be the one to clean up the many messes. plus he could blame better than act upon.

I don't know if McCain threw the election. But he was handed an impossible choice - to accept a poor running mate and court the far right or choose a more widely acceptable running mate and possibly split the party. Had he picked a better candidate than Palin he may have won the presidency only to be undermined by party purists mid-term.

I just wanted to say...

YAY! Polls work now!

Thanks Mr. Manzo!

Now, if we can work on an [embed][/embed] built-in video embed tag .... yeah, I know, give 'em an inch, they want a mile ....

i absolutely think he did. if not for any other reason than it's easier to criticize someone doing the work than it is to roll up your sleeves and do the work.

They get more obscure than Rob Portman? I mean, other than the recent chatter and his bowing and scraping.

I say Rubio, Christie, or Portman.

I don't doubt that the party poobahs are pushing for a safe, boring white guy after the Palin fiasco (though that had nothing to do with her gender and everything to do with crazy).

I can see Romney pushing for Huntsman, but I seriously doubt they'd let him over-Mormon the ticket. On a gut level I can't quite explain, I don't expect him to pick a southerner.

One thing with Portman, though, is that while the far right is forcing Romney to tack away from anything resembling reasonable economic policy Portman is tied to some very moderate comments about fiscal policy even in the face of his tenure at OMB. I still think him one of the most likely, but that could be an issue having two outright hypocrites on what seems to be the consensus issue of the campaign,

Rubio had that Mormon issue arise for him out of his past. I think the number of times he has said he won't do it is a bigger issue. Not as definitively as Bitch Daniels' "if I thought that call was coming I'd disconnect the phone", but pretty significant.

I think I did it wrong. I treated it as a wish list. Gov. Krispy Kreme, Booby, and Frothy. Imagine how much fun one of those klowns would be. Boring white guy would have to be Jan Brewer. That's as boring as a guy can get

I recently saw a report that Pawlenty had suddenly become unavailable for interviews and events - he's been placed on "silent running" while undergoing the VP vetting.

I'd say Pawlenty, Rubio or other.

T-Paw? What does he bring to the table? If that's true and they are passing on Prtman, that could signal they have given up on Ohio. I wish it is true,but I doubt it. But then, Portman has such a scintillating persona, they may be passing because he's could outshine R-money.

I still think Portman's biggest issue was where he tried to appear as the reasonable Republican on fiscal policy, a position Romney has taken and most recently abandoned. Kind of hard for Romney to trend right and simultaneously pick a guy who is known for little other than being Bush's fiscal guy and then doing to Sunday talker espousing the position Romney's trying to move away from.

T-Paw, eh? I may have to pluck Huck from the poll and replace him with T-Paw since nobody has voted for Huckles yet.

And a reminder note: You can change your votes on the poll as we learn more or, as in this case, the poll itself changes.