Who Will Mitt Romney Choose As His Running Mate?

Barring some sort of bizarre and unforeseen turn of events, Mitt Romney will be squaring off against Barack Obama in the 2012 Presidential election.

Joe Biden will almost certainly be Barack Obama's running mate in the upcoming Presidential election - according to online prediction market Intrade.com, Joe Biden currently has a 93.2% of being the Democratic VP nominee. That's about as close to a lock as you are going to get.

The big question that many people have been asking in the past week or two - who will Mitt Romney be running with?

There was some buzz last week that Mitt Romney may choose Condoleezza Rice to be his running mate. This potential move was panned by most, mainly due to Rice's obvious ties to the unpopular Bush administration. Intrade.com traders agree, as they are giving Rice just a 7.0% chance of being named as Romney's running mate. (Note: traders on Intrade.com bet on the likelihood of certain events occurring - each contract is worth a maximum of $10 and a minimum of $0. The "Condoleezza Rice to be named Republican VP Nominee" contract is currently trading at 70 cents, which means that traders believe that there is a 7% chance of this event taking place.)

According to Intrade.com, the person who currently stands the best chance of running with Romney is Rob Portman. Portman was considered as a possible running mate for McCain in 2008, and he is now apparently being considered again in 2012.

Here are some more names and their current chances of receiving the VP nomination, according to Intrade.com:

Tim Pawlenty, 26.0%
Marco Rubio, 8.5%
Bobby Jindal, 6.0%
John Thune, 5.4%
Paul Ryan, 4.5%
Chris Christie, 1.1%
Kelly Ayotte, 2.4%
Bob McDonnell, 1.8%
Dave Heinerman, 0.5%
Cathy McMorris Rodgers, 1.0%
Susana Martinez, 0.5%
Pat Toomey, 0.3%
Ron Paul, 0.5%
Jeb Bush, 0.5%
Rand Paul, 0.2%
Mike Huckabee, 0.4%
Jim DeMint, 0.6%
Jon Kyl, 0.5%
Mitch Daniels, 0.9%
Rick Santorum, 0.3%
David Petraeus, 1.0%
Nikki Haley, 0.3%
John Kasich, 0.2%
Sarah Palin, 0.4%
Rudy Giuliani, 0.2%
Eric Cantor, 0.2%
Brian Sandoval, 0.2%
Luis Fortuno, 0.3%
Kay Bailey Hutchinson, 0.3%
Scott Walker, 0.2%
Allen West, 0.1%
Meg Whitman, 0.1%
JC Watts, 0.1%
Haley Barbour, 0.1%
Mitt Romney, 0.1%
Newt Gingrich, 0.1%
Jon Huntsman, 0.1%
Rick Perry, 0.1%

Now, some of these names obviously have a 0% chance of actually being named as Romney's running mate, but I thought that I would include every name anyways.

Who do you think that Romney and his team will choose as his running mate?

Source: Intrade.com

Filed under: General Knowledge