Skip to footer

Ten possible vice-presidential candidates for the GOP ticket

Too soon to start speculating about possible Republican vice-presidential candidates? Evidently not. Mitt Romney's rise to the level of presumptive presidential nominee seems to have given political writers and pundits the go-ahead to begin one of the favored handicapping contests in all of politics.

10. Rick Santorum

Jason Reed/Reuters
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum speaks outside the US Supreme Court, during the first day of legal arguments over the Affordable Care Act, in Washington on March 26.

  • By Amanda Paulson Staff writer

OK, it’s hard to imagine Romney would really tap a presidential rival who has had such choice words for him in this election season (calling him, for instance, the “worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama” – a statement Rick Santorum later clarified as referring only to the issue of health-care reform).

But Santorum is included here because of his apparent willingness. In late March, he said he’s open to being on the ticket as Romney’s No. 2. (“I’ll do whatever is necessary to help our country,” were his actual words.)

Other people who could be in the running – and who may be more likely VPs than Santorum: former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Sen. Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania.

And of course, other names could yet emerge. In any case, expect the speculation to continue to fill political blogs and talk shows for at least several months.

10 of 10
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.