Veepstakes: Who Will Mitt Pick?

The Olympics aren’t the only event that comes around every four years.  We’re also in the midst of our quadrennial presidential election, although at the moment things are in a bit of a lull.  The next big events will be the conventions, with the Republicans in Tampa starting on August 27 followed by the Democrats in Charlotte starting September 3.  Before that, however, at some point in the next couple of weeks Mitt Romney will announce who he wants for Vice President, and guessing who that might be is what’s keeping reporters, pundits, bloggers and political geeks entertained now that the Romneyshambles European tour is over. 

In a previous post I said that it seems like the Beijing Olympics were just yesterday, and the four years since John McCain dropped the political equivalent of a nuclear bomb and selected Sarah Palin as his running mate have also gone by in a flash.  My blog readers know that I’m not a fan of the former governor of Alaska, at least not as a politician. As blog fodder, however, she’s been both hilarious and invaluable and I’ve had a lot of fun snarking about Sarah, the fam, the once-and-future over-my-dead-body son-in-law, the stupid things they all say and do, etc. It’s safe to say that whoever Mitt Romney selects, he or she won’t be nearly as entertaining. 

As a matter of fact, conventional wisdom seems to be that Mitt’s biggest goal is to pick an “anti-Palin,” an authentic politician, solid and serious, who won’t give late-night TV comics, or snarky bloggers, anything to talk about.  I admit I’ve even felt a tiny little bit of sympathy for Sarah Palin over the last few weeks, as I’ve read article after article speculating about who Romney might pick and emphasizing that above all else he doesn’t want to make a “disastrous” mistake. You know, the way John McCain did.

It’s all a lot of fun and I’ve seen lists suggesting everyone from Marco Rubio to Kelly Ayotte to Susana Martinez to Joe Scarborough.  If I had to guess, however, I’d say that “boring white guy” is the order of the day, and my money’s on either Tim Pawlenty (former governor of Minnesota) or Rob Portman (junior senator from Ohio.)  It won’t be long before we know if I’m right.