Romney 'Looking At' a Woman VP After All
Mitt Romney's campaign has had a "No more Palins" approach to picking his running mate, which appeared to rule out not just candidates who'd fail foreign policy quizzes, but also candidates who are female. The campaign was seeing an "incredibly boring white guy" to be the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Politico reported in May. "Palin poisoned the well on" a female running mate, a "informal adviser" to Romney told NBC News in June. But it doesn't sound very nice to rule out half the population -- or, to be more depressingly accurate, 16.8 percent of Congress and 12 percent of American governors. Especially when Romney is facing a large gender gap.
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So Ann Romney has told CBS News' Jan Crawford that the campaign has a woman in mind after all. "[We've] been looking at that and I love that option as well," Ann said. They'd be looking at "someone that obviously can do the job but will be able to carry through with some of the other responsibilities." What women could they be looking at (or pretending to look at)?
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New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte
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Strength: She's from a swing state, she's liked by the Tea Party, and she has a nice law-and-order background, having been a state attorney general and prosecutor. Ayotte endorsed Romney in the Republican primary, and she appeared with him at a July 4 parade in New Hampshire.
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Weakness: Inexperience. She was elected in 2010.
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Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson
Strength: Lots of experience -- she was first elected to her Senate seat in 1992.
Weakness: Washington insider! Hutchinson's government resume goes back to the 1970s.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley
Strength: She's the first female governor of South Caorlina, and the second Indian-American governor in America. She's charismatic.
Weakness: She has a very low approval rating in her home state.
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez
Strength: She's Hispanic, from a swing state, and popular.
Weakness: Though all potential running mates swear they're not interested in the job, Martinez is one of the few who actually sounds serious. She has a disabled sister and a father with Alzheimer's, and says she needs to care for them.
Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman or former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina
Strength: Either would offer a double dose of executive business experience to the Romney ticket.
Weakness: Both lost in 2010.
