Econintersect: The Washington Post has ten possible running mates for Mitt Romney (pictured) in an article Saturday (March 31). Only one prospect is listed from the east (New Jersey Governor 
Chris Christie) and only one from the west (New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez). Half of the prospects come from the midwest. Noticably absent are any of the rivals to Romney still in the primary race. Of these, Ron Paul might not be interested because of strong ideological differences with Romney (in fact with all of the other candidates, past and present, for the nomination). But both Gingrich and Santorum would likely favorably entertain the tap on the shoulder. In fact Santorum has publicly acknowledged he would accept the nomination for second spot on the ticket.
The Washington Post has discussed the Vice Presidential selection processin an article on March 30. Here is one of their conclusions:
In short, the habitually cautious candidate is less likely to try to make a splash by picking a game-changing candidate and more likely to choose someone safe, whom he sees as competent and ready to be president.
The conventional thinking has been that after a long and divisive primary campaign, the challenge of uniting the GOP would force Romney to pick a running mate with strong appeal to tea party activists and evangelicals. But Romney’s team thinks he may be liberated from that pressure if he can finish off remaining rivals Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul in the next few weeks.
Keep those thoughts in mind as you review the top ten candidates proposed by WaPo below.
Click on image below for full infographic at The Washington Post.
- He’s Awful. But I’ll Be His Running Mate. (Andrew Rosenthal, The New York Times, 30 March 2012)
- Mitt Romney’s ‘veepstakes’ begin (Philip Rucker, The Washington Post, 30 March 2012)
