Aug 11 - Romney picks Paul Ryan as VP running mate

Romney picks Paul Ryan as VP running mate


NORFOLK, Va.--Mitt Romney will name his vice presidential running mate on Saturday.
According to a statement the campaign released late Friday, the presumptive Republican nominee will announce his running mate at an 8:45am rally here on the USS Wisconsin--the first stop of his four-day bus tour of key battleground states. The campaign offered no further details, and aides traveling with Ronney declined to comment.
But Republican sources told NBC News, the Huffington Post, the[..]ociated Press and CNN that Romney is expected to name Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin--reports the campaign refused to confirm. In addition, ABC News's Jon Karl reported that former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio--all of whom were said to be on Romney's short list--have all been told they are not the pick.
Soon after the Romney campaign announced the Saturday appearance, speculation about the VP pick began, with Romney's choice of venue for the announcement offering a potential clue. The USS Wisconsin is the ship named after the home state of Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee who has created buzz among conservatives recently. But the announcement also takes place in Virginia, whose governor, Bob McDonnell, has also been rumored as a possible vice presidential pick.
CNN reported late Friday that Romney phoned several Republicans believed to be on his short list to tell them he had made a pick--though he didn't identify who that person was, nor did the network identify who he phoned. A Romney spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The campaign has tried its best to stoke the buzz over Romney's VP pick. In recent weeks, the campaign has sent out emails to supporters soliciting contributions as part of a contest offering a chance to meet Romney and his running mate. More recently, the campaign unveiled a mobile phone application, Mitt's VP, that promises to reveal the name of Romney's running mate before it is announced to the media.
Romney has also repeatedly declined to offer any hints about who he might pick--most recently in an interview with NBC News on Thursday. Asked about the vice presidential announcement during a media briefing on Friday, Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom directed reporters to download the campaign's mobile app.
Romney and his vice presidential candidate are scheduled to travel throughout Virginia Saturday, before heading to North Carolina on Sunday, Florida on Monday and Ohio on Tuesday. Romney aides are hoping the VP pick will offer new energy to a campaign that has been besieged by negative attacks from President Barack Obama's campaign and negative headlines about Romney's own strategy.
Ryan, 42, has been viewed by Republicans as a game-changing pick for the Romney campaign--a rising star Republican who has been praised as a conservative intellectual. Perhaps most importantly, Ryan and Romney get along. In the run-up to the Wisconsin primary in early April, the two campaigned together nearly everyday for a week--with Ryan even playing an April Fool's Day joke on the GOP candidate. Reporters trailing Romney at the time noted the budding "bromance" between the two men--a description Romney aides did not dispute.
Romney flew from Boston to Norfolk late Friday afternoon with several of his senior aides, including Fehrnstrom and senior strategist Stuart Stevens. He made a brief appearance in the press cabin, where he made small talk on yogurt. There were no major hints that a vice presidential announcement was coming. Indeed, the campaign's mood was so relaxed that several reporters skipped the flight to Virginia and had downgraded plans for coverage of the bus tour thinking that a VP announcement would not come until next week.
Upon landing, the presumptive Republican nominee boarded a new campaign bus touting his plan to "strengthen" the middle class but not his VP. Less than an hour before the campaign announced that Romney would unveil his VP pick, senior Romney aides were spotted mingling with reporters in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel in Norfolk, where the candidate and his entourage are staying, but gave no indication an announcement was imminent.
Reached by email about the VP news, aides all offered the same response "Keep an eye on the app," one said.



Reports: Romney picks Paul Ryan as VP running mate | The Ticket - Yahoo! News

Dont matter who he picks, he already lost anyway.

he has no foreign policy experience (see palin)

has not run for office outside his district

and he cant make wisconsin help out mitt romney

fail written all over it.

Just gave away the senior/independent vote on a silver platter.


Obama won. [pic][pic][pic]

^^^yeah I don't understand this move at all. The Ryan Budget is a bit extreme IMO


I was on the fence about this election but not anymore......I'm definitely voting for Obama

Romney's making the same mistake McCain did. Picking a younger "energetic" running mate in an effort to energize the base and just like in 2008 it'll fail miserably as Ryan will become the center of attention on the ticket. This dude brings nothing to the table as far as swing states/independents go and now the senior vote (one of the few demographics a republican candidate shouldn't have to worry about) is potentially in jeopardy.

thats my congressman [pic]

Paul Ryan is against most young person ideas(gay marriage, healthcare reform, abortions, birth control for females, welfare for low income people of some kinda), he only attracts middle age people with money in their pockets....romney lost the senior, independent and swing state vote with this....


plus if you ever seen him on tv(fox, msnbc or cnn) he always comes across as a douchebag...i think jon stewart called him out to his face for being a douchebag and jon had an serious face the whole discussion

Thanks for making this one easy Mitt [pic]

Widow's peak, Frankenstein lookin nicca.



dayyyum

Haha you BX people are ignorant if you really think Obama is going to be re-elected.

well...it got a lot more likely today

Gallup polls had Mcain leading Obama by 5pts after the Palin pick and Republican convention. Like I said it's just like 2008. There was a lot of excitement with Palin at that time too, till questions started getting asked and people saw where she stood on issues. I don't see how Ryan's ideas will pull folks in the middle to the right, and that's what Romney needs. And don't be fooled by the Walker thing, Wisc is a blue state. IL had a republican governor less than a decade ago and that's as blue a state as you can get in national elections.

Quoting an epic post for future reference....

the republicans are trying to turn this election into a referendum on health care.

fyi, paul ryan is the same guy who wanted to end medicare to fund tax cuts for the rich. the bill ended up failing, but you best believe they gonna try again.

Voted YES on making it a crime to harm a fetus during another crime. (Feb 2004)

[pic]

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I would hope he voted yes on that. What the !! kind of question is that? These !!s in Congress are really voting whether it should be legal to harm a fetus while committing a crime? [pic]

I know it's probably just weird wording and it just means yes for pro-life, but still, the !! is up with the wording?

Stewart calls pretty much any passionate conservative a douche. He's a passionate liberal, it's only natural. This guy has more balls than Romney though, Romney is the John Kerry of conservatives but actually made his own money (yeah I know he got started off by his pops money, but still, he used it and made more, unlike Kerry who just married into money like a leech [pic]) But he's a flip flopper. Bad choice for the Republicans point blank, but it really doesn't matter, Republicans are voting against Obama not for Romney, but they like Ryan a lot so it's actually a good move by Romnebot. Tea Partiers were not digging Romnebot. They love Ryan.

I just wish the Republicans didn't shun off Ron Paul so quickly. If they set him up with an experienced dude at VP, I think he could of beat Obama. The election is gonna be close anyways, but I see Obama likely still pulling it out.

It really doesn't matter though, Obama is trash, cool dude, great war president and I loved how he didn't !! around with Osama, a good diplomat overseas, but horrible on domestic issues which this country needs more than anything, and he doesn't understand economics, or at least his team doesn't. Romney is a !!ing snake, completely out of touch, just a cliche politician who will do anything to get reelected. This sucks man, this country is !!ed. Horrible leaders. Congress as well. I won't be voting yet again for President. Only local candidates for me.

Cmon now, its 2012. Dude got some backwards thinking

Wisconsin and Romney lost[pic][pic][pic]

[pic][pic] Hell of a post, all the way around.

Would have loved to see Ron Paul go head to head with Obama for real. I probably would volunteer on Paul's campaign were that the case. Obama reelection campaign is gonna play hard on Ryan's idea to dismantle Medicare.

I live in FL - and I'll bet my life that we will be seeing ads telling old people that romney/ryan wants to cut their Medicare. TBH I don't think it will get through to these people. Some of these old country people still believe Obama is a radical muslim terrorist. They would literally vote for any republican instead of Obama. Some of the !! I hear from these ppl is so out of this world. The n@sty polarization of political opinion in the last 5ish years is a shame. That's how it is here in north FL anyway, but we're a huge state and often the deciding factor in an election. South FL leans left and has all the population. No way Romney takes dade/broward without rubio as vp. If FL decides it, this pick is a !!-up. I will be very interested to see how each part of FL goes in the presidential election.