This is the year of the racists for Republicans.

from other Hispanic American groups. The racism in the GOP won't even phase Rubio; it didn't face Cain, Steele or JC Watts!

Governor of New Mexico.

The reason it won't be Rubio is because the story of his fabricating his family history is too fresh. It'll take a while to die down--2016 or 2020 will be his time to make a move, assuming he can hang in there long enough.

People who say Republicans won't nominate a minority remind me of those who kept calling Colin Powell the "token black" in the Bush cabinet. It's sad when liberals can't see beyond race, thereby (ironically) lowering the bar for Republicans to seem inclusive. In reality what Colin Powell was was the token grown-up of the Bush White House.

while running. More misery for my poor state.

adverse to taking the chance. He's out anyway in 2014.

Governor of New Mexico Susanna Martinez.

for that, but it does mean that he's been purely and consistently anti-choice. Also has military experience, football player, relatively young - yes, he's definitely a contender.

Evangelicals. I think he has to go for someone who the born agains can feel comfortable with.

and (edit) image (not imagine) have been carefully aligned for appeal to Republicans in general.

The Republicans can't do anything right.

If you think Republicans have a problem with Catholics, I suggest you take a look at who they've put on the Supreme Court

Extremist that appears moderate, check.
Won't upstage the robotic Romney, check.

we both agreed it's a good thing McDonald isn't running for President. He'd be tough to beat.

VA is a toss up and BM can deliver VA easily.

while keeping his scandal sheet mostly clean...

That also puts paid to Louisiana's Booby Jindal, who isn't quite crazy enough, anyway.

pRick Scott? He's a transplanted Yankee (like Newt).

Tennessee's Bill Haslam can union-bust with the best of them, but is an unknown on the national stage.

So yep, it pretty much comes back to Haley, who is term-limited as governor, anyway.

Romney will feel he has to placate the teabaggers and has to at least try to cut into the degree to which Obama wins the Hispanic vote.

He's also got to counter his anti-Dream Act stance.

...only if they absolutely have to.
They will speak to other Cubanos in Spanish.
I believe they don't want the Mexican~Americans to feel like
they are too familiar with them.

Tikki

That will set him up to be the favored candidate in 2016, since the Republican Party seems to have already conceded 2012.

The Repiglicans are so completely out-of-step with what Americans really want, I consider a Jeb VP candidacy not only possible, but likely.

Bobby Jindal.

He may have screwed the pooch with that stunt.....

Rick Perry decided to stay in the race and split the evangelical vote. Maybe Romney promised him something.

but if he promised him VP I think that Romney will betray Perry, who is damaged goods.

or Ryan of Wisconsin.

(Wait for it)

. . .

. . .

. . .

Because he's TALL.

Seriously, I heard some of the shouting heads saying that since he's, y'know, tall, it gives him presence and gravitas.

I don't think they want foreign policy to be part of the discussion if they can avoid it. They certainly don't want a reminder of the administration that didn't get Osama bin Laden.

I think he will select Michele Bachmann.

as a spoiler and I think he was promised something from the Romney campaign for his services. I'm going with Perry.

The bigots will just stay home. They need a white male evangelical to get them to the polls.

Mitt and Obama really want to win Virginia. But Mittens needs to win a big state like Florida, which is also in contention. If Marco Rubio says no, then perhaps Rick Scott will say yes.

At the same time, a John Thune could be a good choice for Romney because he's extremely socially conservative. Tim Pawlenty is from a northern state, so he's out.

But, Romney has several choices:

He could choose Rick Santorum and solidify the social conservative base, plus capture PA.
He could choose a southern governor--perhaps Nikki Haley--and may a play for women and the South.
He could go for VA or FL by choosing either one of their nutbag governors.

Either way, he needs to choose a running mate that either helps him capture the South, pick up a swing state, or do well with social conservatives. A candidate with ALL these qualities would be ideal.

particularily with Romney needing either the South or the two swing states you mentioned.

I would offer a slightly different viewpoint on some of the choices though,

I don't see Santorum being able to enough to capture PA. There's alot of issues, particularily with his choice to use PA as the charter school for his kids while still living in VA. There was some pretty good anger in the Pittsburgh area concerning this. Also, a Santorum VP candidacy could very easily bring out the votes in Philly and Pittsburgh which would pretty much eliminate a good deal of central PA support.

Nikki Haley would first have to deal once and for all those rumors of her affair. This would be unproven ground for a female politician of her stature to have to answer those types of questions. It's unfair, but it would inevitably come up.

I think Thune or Ryan would both be risky choices, especially Ryan. Up until now, there hasn't been the full assault on the single digit approval ratings of Congress and Ryan is right smack dab in the middle of it with his budget proposals that he couldn't even get his own party to endorse. Thune could be a possibility but he really doesn't have the national name recognition just yet.

I had forgotten that Santorum pulled a fast one in VA. However, neither he nor Gingrich are on the ballot. But I do wonder how Cuccinelli factors into this. I'm now thinking that he doesn't want to be governor; he's aspiring to higher office.

The people of South Carolina never held Nikki Haley accountable for her alleged affair. For some reason when Republicans have affairs, a la David Vitter and Newt Gingrich, they are somehow forgiven if they utter the word "Jesus." At any rate, her approval numbers are down anyway. I think John McCain, with the help of his boyfriend, Lindsay Graham, should help some. McCain remains immensely popular in SC, despite KKKarl tactics in 2000.

Still interested in your thoughts on Florida which seems very much to be in play.

but it's going to be hard sells for both candidates there. So depending on the popularity of Rubio or Scott that could be a deciding factor when it comes to a VP choice.

I don't know Cuccinelli so forgive me.

For the most part, it seems like if that's true of Haley's approval numbers, that'll put her in the Corbett range. That'll be another thing alot of us Pennsylvanians will be looking at also. It'll be an interesting interaction between Corbett and the R nominee since many of the issues here mirror the national scene also. That hopefully will be to the President's advantage if it's played right. The primary (which if I'm not mistaken is in Feb) will come very shortly after Corbett announces his budget proposals for 2012-2013. The state is already facing a shortfall of $500 million and if the proposed cuts affect social services or don't propose a gas extraction tax and come primary time if the candidates all endorse that proposal then the advantage most certainly would then be the President's.

From what I've been seeing and reading, PA isn't unique in that states that now have very heavy R control things are not improving. I think people may start seeing the "cut,cut,cut" logic not having a real strong base.

Evangelical true believer who is a total fool.

To the average general election casual voter he reminds them too much of W. Sure the wingnuts like him and yes, to them stupid is an asset, but they have them in the bag. Ask John McCain how having a walking SNL skit on the ticket helped him. In fact I'll give you three reasons why Perry won't be on the ticket...

to Mitt Romney's Governor of Massachusetts role of Mike Dukakis.

Also, he and Romney are both confusingly pro-health care coverage. The Republicans don't want two people like that on the same ticket. And Daniels has no charisma.

So he's got that going for him. Which is nice. Oh and his wife ran off with the pool boy or something and left Mitch to raise the kids before eventually coming back, and she REALLY doesn't want to talk about it.

Sure Reagan took papa Bush which seemed logical. However Nixon's running mate came out of nowhere, same for McCain, baby Bush took the extremely unpopular Cheney who didn't logically help him at all election wise. Kemp was a little more sound but taking a New Yorker didn't seem a great strategic move. I have no clue who will take the VP job, but it would not shock me if Mitt took someone completely not in the picture and not logically associated with an election move. I personally think a lot of his "best" choices are people who didn't run this cycle because they want the job in 2016 and you don't get to be president by losing as the VP choice these days.

He said he wasn't going to run last year.
But, this is 2012, so he'll ask Ted Nugent back on his tv program and they'll play 'Cat Scratch Fever' . . one . . more . . time!

An encore performance!

LoL

Oh no...I'm sorry...he'd be to the LEFT of most of the rethugs these days...

Nothing like a good DixieCrat to pull in the racist vote.