The unofficial Obama and Romney VP speculation thread

[Commando]

Beclowning someone else. Interesting.

I was gonna bring this up too... except I was gonna say it's an awesome word!

[Commando]

Damn it, though. I wanted Chris Christie

[myboynoah]

Done! Mitt tweets it's Ryan.

[YOhio]

Boring.

Babes never like the nice guy.

[calicoug]

Wow. Just outstanding. If I could have picked for Mitt from his short list Ryan would have been a no-brainer!

Republicans gift Democrats two consecutive VPs. Clearly they haven't realized if you pick a candidate to solidify your base at the expense of courting independents, you've lost.

[LA Ute]

Babes never like the nice guy.

YOhio, Mitt would never have passed over Portman if you were not there in Ohio to make sure the GOP carries the state.

I just wanna tell you: good luck. We're all counting on you.

[Maximus]

Wow. Just outstanding. If I could have picked for Mitt from his short list Ryan would have been a no-brainer!

Republicans gift Democrats two consecutive VPs. Clearly they haven't realized if you pick a candidate to solidify your base at the expense of courting independents, you've lost.

says the guy whose president presented a plan that even democrats wouldn't vote for. At least admit you would have said this for any pick.

[LA Ute]

I hope we see discussions like this in the remainder of the campaign:

[YOUTUBE]ho95vcVeFf0&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/YOUTUBE]

One party wants to kick the Medicare can down the road, the other wants to fix it.

[All-American]

Ryan is a solid pick. Romney is doubling down on the most important issue of the campaign. The Romney-Ryan ticket is about fixing the budget. He's hoping the edge he gets by focusing on the issue is more than he would get by pandering to a state or demographic.

Odd that he announces on a Saturday morning. Romney really doesn't trust the media, it seems.

[LA Ute]

Gay Conservatives More Excited For Ryan Than*Romney

[Babs]

Babes never likes the nice guy.

No kidding. I think LA Ute is super annoying.

[calicoug]

says the guy whose president presented a plan that even democrats wouldn't vote for. At least admit you would have said this for any pick.

When did the President present a plan Democrats wouldn't vote for???

And no, I wouldn't have said this for any pick. In fact, it can only be true of one pick (the one I would have selected for Mitt's running mate).

If I were to order his short list from candidates I would most want Mitt to pick to those I would least want, it would look something like this:

Ryan (for reasons below)
Gingrich (can't even believe he was on the list, he's just barely behind Ryan for me and only because he had enough sense to criticize Ryan's nuts budget)
Santorum (he's just awful- no way he attracts independents)
Christie (bombastic, likely to go off topic and get Mitt in big trouble, unstable)
Pawlenty (does nothing to move the needle anywhere on anything)
Rice (reminds people of the Bush years which nobody liked)
(Personal note- I really can't believe any of the above people are on any short list to be VP. It really speaks to the state of the Republican party right now)

Portman (could move the needle in Ohio which would potentially matter, but he's not even all that known in Ohio)
Thune (I think he is actually quite bright and capable, and maybe in the VP spotlight he could be strong- he would have concerned me as a presidential nominee but not sure he is suited as a VP nominee)
Jindal (but for his awful state of the union rebuttal, I might have listed him last)
Rubio (I admittedly didn't think he would succeed in Florida but he has so far and I don't want a Latino on the Republican ticket at a time when the Latino vote seems to be consolidating behind Democrats- but he has some legal issues and Romney seemed scared away from him from the beginning leaving us to wonder what Romney knows about him)
Martinez (same as Rubio without legal issues)
Ayotte (strong female candidate, bright, capable, really a wildcard in whether she could swing lots of female voters which could spell trouble for Dems)

Ryan not only has a lot of baggage from his budget proposals (which, it should be noted, even conservative Republicans in Congress ran away from), but he totally shifts the campaign dynamic in a way almost no other VP nominee could. Romney wanted this election to be a referendum on Obama, not a campaign on ideas (which is why he hasn't given almost any other than broad generalizations about what he would do). Ryan has concrete and specific plans on paper and now the campaign is a contrast between Ryan's ideas (which are radical and wildly unpopular in polling) versus Obama's. I like that battle every single day.

Ryan shores up conservative votes. It's a rough sign for Romney that he needed to shore up those votes (note how quickly conservatives have turned on Romney over and over again in the media- they just don't like or trust Romney). Shoring up those votes comes at the expense of independent voters and likely a large chunk of senior voters. The AARP has to be going crazy with the prospect of Ryan as VP pushing his policy ideas.

I truly think that if this past week hadn't gone so poorly for Romney (bad polling everywhere for him, his spokesperson touting Romney-care, conservatives like Erickson saying Romney needed to be "trained like a dog," etc.) that we might be seeing a different pick like Pawlenty or Portman (who preserve the status quo). I think we learned about this pick with such little notice because Romney had to do something fast to change the narrative of the race. Given how conservative Romney has been in running his campaign, I'm still surprised by this pick even given the momentum behind Obama right now.

Lastly, Romney now risks being overshadowed by his VP pick. Conservatives love Ryan. They don't even like Romney. Didn't help that Romney accidentally introduced Ryan as the next president.

[calicoug]

I hope we see discussions like this in the remainder of the campaign:

[YOUTUBE]ho95vcVeFf0&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/YOUTUBE]

One party wants to kick the Medicare can down the road, the other wants to fix it.

Eliminating it isn't the same as "fixing" it.

[LA Ute]

No kidding. I think LA Ute is super annoying.

I like being super.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Paul Ryan has so much baggage that he only received 64% of the vote in 2008 in his district which went for Obama in that same election. After he became more of the face of the GOP in Congress in the two years following that he only increased his vote percentage to 68% in 2010. Yes, an absolute ton of baggage for this guy.

I suppose "we have to stop giving so much shit away. We can't afford it and it causes those on the receiving end to rely on it into perpetuity" passes for baggage in the current Democratic party. In case anyone was paying attention, voters in 2010 were pretty pissed off about the government giving too much shit away. I hope we debate all this Paul Ryan "baggage" for the remainder of the race.