
According to the Weekly Standard it’s going to by . . . Paul Ryan.
(Washington Examiner) — “Romney will announce his choice for Vice President in Norfolk, Virginia at 8:45am EST,” Romney campaign spokesman Lenny Alcivar told reporters in an email this evening.
The announcement is being made at the USS Wisconsin. It’s still unclear whom he will choose, but the odds that it is Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., seemed to increase when National Review’s Robert Costa noted that a charter plane flew from Boston to Ryan’s hometown of Janesville, Wis., today.
Presidential campaigns, however, are notorious for head fakes during the running mate selection process.
If it is Ryan, Romney might have been hinting at the selection when he described his intended running mate to NBC’S Chuck Todd.
“I certainly expect to have a person that has a strength of character,” Romney said. “A vision for the country, that, that adds something to the political discourse about the direction of the country. I mean I happen to believe this is a defining election for America; that we’re gonna be voting for what kind of America we’re gonna have.”
Via the Weekly Standard:
THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that the Romney campaign has begun to prepare a vigorous effort in support of Paul Ryan if he is selected as Mitt Romney’s vice presidential pick—something now likely to happen soon. For example, GOP officials tell THE WEEKLY STANDARD that Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is among a group of Republicans who has been asked to be ready, in terms of his schedule and other practical preparations, to make the case publicly for a Romney-Ryan ticket as early as Saturday.
This of course does not mean the Wisconsin congressman will necessarily end up as Romney’s running mate. The Romney campaign may be working to lay the groundwork for one or two other possible picks, though THE WEEKLY STANDARD has been unable to find evidence of any comparable preparation for other candidates. Or the Romney team could be engaging in some last minute misdirection, as other campaigns have done. In 2000, much of the attention in the days before the announcement of Dick Cheney as Bush’s running mate focused on John Danforth, thanks to nudging from inside the campaign. And in 2004, the New York Post splashed on its front page a story indicating that Richard Gephardt would be John Kerry’s running mate. It’s entirely possible that the Romney campaign is engaging in the same kind of shenanigans.
