Two of the top contenders to be Mitt Romney’s running mate hit the campaign trail Wednesday, with co-favorite Tim Pawlenty saying “we’ll know soon enough” who fills out the Republican ticket.
Minnesota ex-governor Pawlenty and Ohio’s Senator Rob Portman are rumored to be in the final running, and Romney is expected to announce his decision soon, perhaps as early as this week ahead of a bus tour through four states.
Their mission Wednesday was to stump for the party’s presumptive nominee and challenge Obama on various issues, including how to turn around the sluggish economy, as speculation mounted over who Romney would choose.
“As to the vice presidential thing, we’ll know soon enough,” Pawlenty, who ran for president briefly before dropping out and backing Romney, told reporters in Jackson, Michigan where he helped open a Romney campaign office.
The feisty Minnesotan with blue-collar roots, who regularly appears alongside Romney on the campaign trail, would not be drawn on who might end up on the ticket, but said the Republican flagbearer has options aplenty.
“He’s got a lot of great people to pick from,” Pawlenty told the Detroit Free Press.
US pundits point to six or eight serious candidates for the number two job, including Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, governors Chris Christie of New Jersey and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
But Portman has been mentioned perhaps most of all.
The low-key lawmaker is from the linchpin state of Ohio, which no successful Republican candidate has failed to win, and a Portman choice is seen as a logical bid to win over undecided voters in the crucial battleground.
Portman, who also served as budget director and US trade representative under former president George W. Bush, rallied Romney supporters in Colorado, where he hopscotched through five events as he bracketed Obama, who was making his own campaign stops in the Rocky Mountain state.
“Today is a good day for governor Romney here in Colorado,” ABC News quoted Portman as saying, as he referred to a new Quinnipiac University/CBS News/New York Times poll that shows Romney up 50 percent to 45 percent there.
“You’ll see we’re trending in the right direction.”
While accusing Obama of “attacking relentlessly” against Romney, who faces pressure to release his pre-2010 tax returns and criticism over his record at private equity firm Bain Capital, Portman himself went on the offensive, telling a crowd that Obama was largely to blame for the weak economy.
“Things are not getting better. They are getting worse,” Portman said. “We need to elect Mitt Romney to turn things around.”
Romney embarks on a bus tour Saturday through Virginia, North Carolina and Florida before concluding in Ohio, and Romney’s team has confirmed that Portman will join him at some point on the tour.
Potential VP picks stump for Romney as choice nears
