Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The conservative media is trying to manufacture excitement for Willard "Mittens" Romney's VP pick. Last week the idiot Drudge was fueling speculation that it would be Condoleeza Rice, the former Georg W. Bush national security adviser and Secretary of State.
This week the idiot Drudge is fueling speculation that it will be David Petraeus, currently the head of the CIA but previously the darling of conservatives for his role as Commander of the U.S. Central Command and the "surge" strategy in Iraq. Drudge’s Latest Manufactured News: The Petraeus Boom!
This manufactured B.S. from Drudge has already been shot down by the White House.
The other media speculation surrounding Romney's VP pick turns on his scheduled bus trip this week through several swing states to promote his higher taxes on America's middle class to give tax cuts to his friends in the 1% plan. It would be the perfect setting to have his new vice president nominee by his side being introduced to the country. Alas, no. Romney's upcoming bus tour probably isn't a VP rollout - Political Hotsheet:
[I]t would be kind of awkward, with so many also-rans beside them.
The Romney camp's announcement Monday that the candidate would embark on a four-day bus tour this weekend through Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio quickly raised speculation that he was getting ready to introduce his vice president.
But staff members for Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, both potential vice presidential picks, soon confirmed the two politicians would be joining Romney while he was in their home states.
It would be no surprise to see Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who has stumped with Romney before and does Hispanic outreach for the campaign, to appear with Romney when the bus tour rolls through Florida on August 13. And former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty could be along for the ride in North Carolina, where he has already campaigned twice for Romney this cycle.
To have Romney parading around his new running mate with the runners-up for the job standing by would demonstrate party unity, but talk about awkward. More likely the confirmed presence of reported VP short-listers means that Team Romney is waiting until closer to the Aug. 27 party convention to announce the pick.
There is also the obvious faux pas of trying to preempt news fixation on the closing ceremonies of the London Summer Olympics on Sunday and celebrating the success of our American athletes.
Ed Kilgore at the Political Animal blog gets it right -- Romney is Milking the Distraction To the Last Drop:
For what it is worth, Fox News’ Chris Stirewalt makes a very convincing case for the proposition that Mitt Romney will wait until the last possible moment to announce his running-mate:
Mitt Romney has 18 days in which to announce his choice of his running mate, and you can bet he’s going to milk as much from the topic as is humanly possible. So what’s the advantage in stopping the fun early?
Romney is prepared to tantalize the press pool with another round of house calls on top-tier contenders starting Saturday as he takes bus tours through Virginia (Gov. Bob McDonnell), Florida (Sen. Marco Rubio) and Ohio (Sen. Rob Portman).
The idea here is to ramp up the speculation to the most furious levels possible - to get reporters and Republicans totally immersed in the quadrennial parlor game of running-mate speculation.
For months, Team Romney has hinted that the running mate announcement would come early so as to create more buzz and give the duo more time to campaign ahead of the convention. But does that really make sense?
Nope. As is often the case, the value of Veep speculation exceeds the value of an actual Veep, particularly if you are Mitt Romney and you are likely to settle on someone very unexciting, and particularly if your media coverage has been a mite negative lately[.]
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Translating Stirewalt’s analysis from the original Foxspeak, Mitt’s on the defensive, has nothing much positive to offer, and is unlikely to choose a running-mate who creates a buzz or defies criticism and scrutiny. So why not milk the distractions involved in the Veep guessing-game as long as possible, and then bury the inevitable letdown and any negative press about The Choice in the deep sands of Convention Coverage?
Makes sense to me.
Just wave some bright shiny objects in front of the media villagers to distract them. it's just so easy.
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