Well The Former Viceroy has finally bought, battered smarmed and libeled his way to the GOP Presidential Nomination.
Humble Elias has a few general observations based on years of Romney watching from within and without the Commonwealth:
Based on past performance, Romney generally favors a running mate that offers no great political or intellectual challenge to him running concurrently with a desire to make a grand somewhat empty gesture towards diversity and the unconventional.
This is exactly how Massachusetts ended up with the charmless and underwhelming Kerry Healey as our Lieutenant Governor.
Romney had to reach pretty far down in the GOP ranks to find Healey bypassing several better qualified women in the process.
It seems pretty axoimatic He'd love to do likewise and the same this time, but of course the shadow of the 2008 Palin nomination falls over that option.
So I'm doubting that he'll try for a gender switcheroo despite a pronounced preference for Yes Women and female toadies in his entourage.
He might try this with a Marco Rubio type, go for an ethnic change up in a critical state, but then Rubio is very new to the national scene and might end up being a sort of "Male Palin" a "Malin" so to speak.
There has also been talk of a Chris Christie nomination, which to me suggests just how much the GOP has degenerated into the party of regional resentment when a Former Governor of Massachusetts needs the incumbent Governor of New Jersey to put the Garden State in play this fall. It also illustrates Romney's lack of a firm electoral base within and without the GOP.
I just don't see Christie playing well on the campaign trail, he is every Florida retirees nightmarish blowhard Son in Law and to the rest of the South he looks acts and sounds like a omnivorous consumer of public funds.
There is also talk of Ohio's Senator Portman that seems like a safer choice in a region very much up for grabs. And as of last week Jeb Bush's name has gotten some play...Romney has always inexplicably prided himself on his influence with La Famiglia Arbusto who in turn have always treated him like a dimwitted show pony.
If I had to put money on it, Jeb Bush to win, Portman to place, Rubio to show...but that is a line up subject to change.
