The Veepstakes - Early Edition

You can tell we've reached a slow moment in the election cycle, because talk of Vice Presidents seems to be in the news. The buzz yesterday started when a report from Jonathan Karl at ABC suggested that Marco Rubio, the wunderkind senator from Florida, was not being "vetted" as a potential Mitt Romney running mate. Romney's camp denied this was the case, but frankly it's inside baseball.

I would guess that Rubio will get consideration, but not a lot. If he were the veep choice, the immigration issue would become either Matsu or Quemoy in this cycle and Romney intends to make this election about the economy.

The Veepstakes is always an amusing thing, especially since no one outside of the candidate really knows. In the last cycle I guessed right on John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin, but I claim no special insight in the matter. What is amusing, looking back on what happened four years ago, is that a fair number of the same names seem to be in the running, including:

• Tim Pawlenty, our former governor
• Rob Portman, a senator from Ohio
• Paul Ryan, the high-profile House Budget Committee chairman from Wisconsin

You heard rumors on all of these gentlemen last time. I think we can safely rule out Sarah Palin for this cycle, but is there another potential woman in the mix? If so, I'd suggest three possibilities:

• Kelly Ayotte, a senator from New Hampshire
• Susana Martinez, governor of New Mexico
• Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a congresswoman from the Spokane, WA area

Who will Romney pick? My guess is that they line up in the following order:

1. Pawlenty
2. Portman
3. McMorris Rodgers
4. Ryan
5. Martinez
6. Ayotte

We'll certainly talk more about this in the coming days, but for now I'd be curious to get your guesses on what Romney is thinking.