The Week: Most Recent 2012 Elections:2012 Veepstakes

History's 9 most surprising VP picks: A slideshow

By The Week Staff — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:50:00 -0400

Confounding some prognosticators, Mitt Romney has chosen Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.), the architect of a controversial budget and perceived enemy of Medicare, as his running mate. How does this "game-changing" choice compare to previous vice presidential picks? Here, a look back at other veep selections that took the political establishment by surprise.

Will Mitt Romney's VP pick make a difference?

By The Week Staff — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 07:15:00 -0400

The political world "is consumed at the moment with trying to divine the identity of Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick," says Chris Cillizza at The Washington Post. "Travel schedules are pored over, public statements are parsed, Wikipedia is consulted," and campaign jets and tour buses are surveilled for telling new signage. But for all the ink and pixels spent on what amounts to bald speculation, there's the inconvenient fact that a candidate's "vice presidential pick — viewed through the lens of recent history — has almost no broad influence on the fate of the ticket." So...

Romney's VP pick: 4 reasons a 'boring white guy' would hurt the GOP ticket

By The Week Staff — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 10:40:00 -0400

Republican soothsayers are predicting that Mitt Romney is about to end the long guessing game over his pick for running mate, and the safe bets are still on Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) or former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.). But as time ticks down, says Jack Cafferty at CNN, "some Republicans are getting nervous about what will happen if Romney goes with a safe pick — a buttoned-down, cautious, boring white guy... sort of like himself." Here are four reasons the presumptive GOP presidential nominee should, as The Weekly Standard advises, "go bold" in his VP pick.

1. At this point, boring is...

Rob Portman's haunted hotel and 3 more surprises about the VP frontrunner

By The Week Staff — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:05:00 -0400

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) has long been pegged as just the type of "boring white guy" who Mitt Romney is likely to pick as his vice-presidential running mate, given the Republican presidential candidate's desire to avoid the drama and controversy that surrounded John McCain's choice of the decidedly un-boring Sarah Palin. Portman, a former U.S. trade representative and director of the Office of Management and Budget, certainly appears a tad boring on paper, and the comedian Stephen Colbert has quipped that a Romney-Portman ticket would be an example of "the bland leading the bland." But there...

Dick Cheney dismisses Sarah Palin as 'a mistake': 4 takeaways

By The Week Staff — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 13:40:00 -0400

Dick Cheney is seasoned when it comes to picking running mates — he helped Gerald Ford choose his No. 2 in 1976 and, 24 years later, headed the VP search committee that picked himself to run alongside George W. Bush. So naturally, in Cheney's first interview since getting a heart transplant, ABC News' Jonathan Karl asked about Mitt Romney's looming VP selection. Cheney's advice: Don't pick someone like Sarah Palin. (Watch a video below.) The test has to be, "Is this person capable of being president of the United States?" Cheney said. "I like Governor Palin. I've met her. I know her. [She...

Inside the VP vetting process: A guide to the invasive questions

By The Week Staff — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 12:30:00 -0400

"Leaks are springing. Trial balloons are floating. Egos are being stroked. Wannabes are auditioning," says Nancy Benac at The Associated Press. The Veepstakes are in full swing, and Mitt Romney is reportedly on the verge of announcing his decision. The process of selecting a running mate is notoriously tough on the would-be Veeps, who have to undergo a thorough vetting that can reach into the most personal areas of their lives. Seeking to discover just how grueling it is, GQ's Jason Zengerle, a self-described "happily married dad with pitifully little to hide," undergoes a vetting from a veteran...

Should Mitt Romney hurry up and name his VP?

By The Week Staff — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 10:23:00 -0400

Washington has been distracted this week by signs that Mitt Romney is on the verge of announcing his running mate. Longtime Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said Tuesday that the presumed GOP nominee is ready to make his vice presidential pick "any time," and certainly sooner than expected. Romney is reportedly eager to change the conversation after facing the Obama campaign's steady attacks over his tax returns and his record at Bain Capital. Is this the right moment for Romney to unveil a headline-grabbing No. 2 pick?

Romney needs his veep bounce now: History shows that presidential candidates typically...

4 reasons Mitt Romney won't pick Condi Rice as VP

By The Week Staff — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 17:20:00 -0400

On Thursday, the Drudge Report reported that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had emerged as a frontrunner in the race to be Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick — even though she's repeatedly disavowed any interest in the job. Analysts agree that the exceedingly experienced Rice would bring many positives to the ticket: She's a foreign-policy heavyweight widely respected in many conservative circles and the highest-ranking black woman ever to serve in government. But she also has some crucial drawbacks. (So many that some pundits suspect the Romney campaign, which has ties to ...

Should Mitt Romney choose a female VP?

By The Week Staff — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 07:30:00 -0400

Mitt Romney has been frustratingly tight-lipped about his search for a running mate thus far, but his wife isn't as guarded. In an interview with CBS News that was broadcast Thursday, Ann Romney leaked that her husband's campaign is considering choosing a female vice presidential candidate. "We've been looking at that, and I love that option as well," she said. She didn't go into any more detail, but pundits quickly began speculating over whether a female running mate would be a shrewd move. A survey earlier this year showed that President Obama leads Romney among women voters by 16 points, leading...

Tim Pawlenty: The new VP frontrunner?

By The Week Staff — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 08:58:00 -0400

"Tim Pawlenty could be forgiven for thinking his fellow Republicans don't give him the respect he deserves," says Jill Lawrence at National Journal. Among the "major humiliations" the former Minnesota governor has endured are being passed over by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the 2008 veepstakes, despite being tipped as the favorite, and having his 2012 presidential ambitions quashed by Iowa GOP voters, who picked Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas) over him in the ballyhooed Ames Straw Poll. But all that may change: Pawlenty has found new life as "an energetic and highly visible...

Why Marco Rubio isn't being vetted for VP: 5 theories

By The Week Staff — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 15:45:00 -0400

As Mitt Romney auditions potential candidates to join his ticket as the vice-presidential nominee, a cadre of Republicans have been championing one name as a no-brainer: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. So when ABC News reported Tuesday that Team Romney has not even asked Rubio to complete questionnaires or financial disclosure forms — all but confirming that he isn't even being vetted for the VP gig — many political junkies were shocked. "Young, charismatic, and wildly popular with conservatives," the Tea Party-backed Latino was once widely seen as the VP frontrunner, says...

Mitt Romney's 'VP tryout extravaganza': Rating the contenders

By The Week Staff — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 10:15:00 -0400

Mitt Romney is wrapping up his six-state "Every Town Counts" bus tour, and he hasn't been traveling alone. As his bus swung through New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the upper Midwest, Romney held "a series of rolling auditions" for potential vice presidential candidates, say Jeff Zeleny and Ashley Parker in The New York Times. Many of the Republicans believed to be on Romney's short-list joined him on the bus and on the stump, showing their mettle at rallies and allowing "Romney and his family to measure their comfort level with a potential partner on the ticket." The selection process is...

The 8 best 'I won't be Romney's running mate' lines

By The Week Staff — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 07:22:00 -0400

Pity the poor Republicans deemed to be on Mitt Romney's short list for vice presidential running mate: If they want the job, tradition and politics dictate that they have to say they don't, or won't get picked, or are too busy in their current job to give the veepstakes much thought. For candidates who really don't want to be on the list, it's worse: They are still going to be asked about the No. 2 slot on the ticket in every interview, and how many ways are there to say no, without offending Romney and other powerful figures in the GOP? Here are some of the more creative ways short-listed Republicans...

Bobby Jindal: A sudden VP frontrunner?

By The Week Staff — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:02:00 -0400

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, stirred up the Republican veepstakes on Wednesday, arguing at Politico that presumptive nominee Mitt Romney's best bet is Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. In hyping Jindal for the ticket, Norquist largely ignores conventional election strategy and focuses on Jindal's ideological purity, exemplified by his promise not to raise his state's taxes. Most pundits consider the popular, boyish Jindal — who insists he's not interested in the slot — a longshot behind potential VP picks with more national experience, such as Sen. Rob Portman...

Should Mitt Romney pick an 'incredibly boring white guy' for VP?

By The Week Staff — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:02:00 -0400

President Obama threw a sort-of compliment toward 2008 presidential rival Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Monday night, saying McCain is at least more forward-looking than 2012 presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney. Perhaps not coincidentally, Politico reported earlier Monday that Team Romney believes McCain's campaign was so terrible that Romney's basic 2012 strategy boils down to: "Whatever McCain did, do the opposite." This will be especially true when Romney chooses his running mate. One unidentified GOP official tells Politico that the specter of Sarah Palin is so haunting to the...

Veepstakes: 4 reasons Mitt Romney might pick Mike Huckabee

By The Week Staff — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:19:00 -0400

The newest hot name in the Mitt Romney veepstakes is a blast from the past: 2008 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. The former Arkansas governor-turned-Fox News host lost the last round of presidential primaries to Sen. John McCain, and now an increasing number of insider Romney supporters are reportedly urging Mitt to put Huckabee on this year's ticket. Here, four reasons that might be a good idea:

1. Huckabee would fire up evangelicals
Romney will need all the help he can get to encourage a big turnout from the GOP base, American Family Association founder Don Wildmon tells Business Insider...