Axelrod's Veep Bet? Tim Pawlenty

As the frenzy of speculation over whom Mitt Romney will pick as his running mate intensifies, David Axelrod, senior adviser to President Obama’s reelection campaign, predicts that it will be former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.

“If I were picking, I’d pick Pawlenty,” Axelrod told National Journal. “You shouldn’t write that, because everybody will think I’m trying to bait [Romney] into picking Pawlenty.”

Opposition research, of course, is at the ready for everyone thought to be on Romney’s short list. But the psychological preparations at Obama’s Chicago headquarters seem geared almost entirely toward a Romney-Pawlenty ticket.

“That’s my influence,” Axelrod told NJ. “I’ve been saying Pawlenty for four months. The reasoning, as a strategist, would be: He is acceptable to the Right and the evangelicals, but he’s not scary to moderates. He’s good on television. He’s been through this. “

http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/axelrod-s-veep-bet-tim-pawlenty-20120810