Mitt Romney’s VP shortlist: Presumptuous?

The GOP presidential frontrunner floats three names for the No. 2 spot on the ticket — six months before a single primary vote is cast

Mitt Romney
(Image credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Mitt Romney may be getting ahead of himself. The former Massachusetts governor — who leads the GOP presidential field in both the polls and fundraising — acknowledged at a Virginia fundraiser that he's already pondering running mates. On Romney's shortlist are two first-term governors — Virginia's Bob McDonnell and New Jersey's Chris Christie — and a first-term senator: Marco Rubio of Florida. The names themselves "aren't earth-shattering": McDonnell and Rubio come from critical swing states, and Christie is a Tea Party idol. But Romney's veepstakes hinting comes more than six months before the Iowa caucuses, and more than a year before the 2012 Republican convention, when the eventual nominee would traditionally announce his VP. Is Romney being "presumptuous"?

This is presumptuous — and risky: Romney has been casting himself as his party's best shot to take down President Obama, says John Ellis at Business Insider. Once again, he's looking past the whole primary process — and onto a general election battle. But that's "risky business." Voters who decide the early primaries don't want to be taken for granted. They want to be wooed. So floating the names of possible running mates "before a single precinct caucus has been attended and before a single primary vote has been cast" threatens to turn off conservative voters already wary of Romney.

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