Romney Vice Presidential Speculation

As is typically the case with vice presidential searches, Mitt Romney's search, led by long-time senior advisor Beth Myers, was closely guarded.  While dozens of names were mentioned, most speculation focused on a half dozen possibilities.  Romney "test drove" many of the leading prospects, as they actively stumped for and campaigned with him after he became the presumptive nominee. 

     revised August 13, 2012

Intrade, the world's leading prediction marketTM, lists 57 possible VP picks plus an "other" category.  Some of these are wildly improbable such as Gary Johnson or Buddy Roemer.  Leading the market on the morning of Aug. 7 were:
Sen. Rob Portman (OH) 
Fmr. Gov. Tim Pawlenty (MN)
Sen. Marco Rubio (FL)
Rep. Paul Ryan (W)
Sen. John Thune (SD)
Gov. Bobby Jindal (LA)
 33.8% chance
18.3% chance
10.8% chance
9.6% chance
5.5% chance
4.0% chance

The Race42012 website ran a Veep Prediction Contest.  Final results posted on Aug. 7 tallied 110 predictions covering 16 picks.  Leading the field were:
Rep. Paul Ryan 
Fmr. Gov. Tim Pawlenty
Sen. Marco Rubio
Gov. Bobby Jindal
Gov. Chris Christie
Sen. Rob Portman
25%
 21%
14%
10%
8%
6%

Most frequent guesses on the date of the announcement were Aug. 10 and Aug. 17.

On July 31, the Romney campaign announced a "Mitt's VP" app.  "As soon as the Vice Presidential choice is announced, users will receive a push notification on their smart phone."



Townhall.com put up a Veepstakes page. "Townhall.com is conducting a monthly poll to see whom conservatives would like to see team up with Mitt Romney to take on President Obama. We'll keep polling until a running mate is selected."  The page shows 25 prospects, including some improbable figures such as Donald Trump and Sarah Palin.  The page has a nice design in that it allows the user to click on the photo of their choice and drag it next to the Romney photo. ConservativeHQ, "the online news source for conservatives and Tea Partiers committed to bringing small-government constitutional conservatives to power," charged readers to "Send YOUR VP Pick to Romney!"  As of Aug. 7, Sen. Marco Rubio was the choice of 112 readers, followed by Sen. Rand Paul with 47 readers and Gov. Scott Walker with 41 readers.  (Also releases from May 1 and Aug. 8).
 The May 2012 cover of Townhall magazine showed eight prospects: Sen. John Thune, Sen. Marco Rubio, Rep. Paul Ryan, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Gov. Bobby Jindal, Gov. Chris Christie and Gov. Susana Martinez.





American Bridge 21st Century launched a Veep Mistakes page in July 2012.  The page initially featured Sen. Rob Portman, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Sen. Marco Rubio.  On Aug. 8 the group added Gov. Bobby Jindal and Rep. Paul Ryan.  Clicking the cards on the site led to detailed pages on those candidates including lengthy research reports and videos. 

Portman
Pawlenty
Rubio
Jindal
Ryan
 Report # of pages
347
493
555
313
290
 # of videos
9
102
52
3
12

According to the website, "During the 2012 GOP presidential primary, the Republican base tried as hard as they could to nominate anyone-but-Romney. Just as Mitt was the best they could muster for the party's standard bearer, their choices to fill the rest of the ticket aren't much better. Four years after Sarah Palin, Republicans are once again poised to put forward a deeply flawed candidate as their vice presidential nominee. But you don't have to take our word for it. See what's in the cards and decide for yourself."