Reports: Romney picks Paul Ryan as VP running mate

Ryan and Romney on election night in Wisconsin in April (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

NORFOLK, Va.--Mitt Romney will name his vice presidential running mate on Saturday.

Per a campaign statement released late Friday, the presumptive Republican nominee will announce his running mate at an 8:45am rally here on the USS Wisconsin--the first stop of his four-day bus tour of key battleground states. The campaign offered no further details, and aides traveling with the presumptive Republican nominee declined to comment.

But Republican sources told NBC News, the Huffington Post, the Associated Press and CNN that Romney is expected to name Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin--reports the campaign refused to confirm. In addition, ABC News's Jon Karl reported that former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio--all of whom were said to be on Romney's short list--have all been told they are not the pick.

Almost immediately, speculation began about Romney's choice of venue for the announcement. The USS Wisconsin is the ship named after the home state of Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee who has been the subject of growing buzz among conservatives in recent days. But the announcement also takes place in Virginia, where Gov. Bob McDonnell has also been rumored as a possible vice presidential pick.

CNN reported late Friday that Romney phoned several Republicans believed to be on his short list to tell them he had made a pick--though he didn't identify who that person was, nor did the network identify who he phoned. A Romney spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The campaign has tried its best to stoke the buzz over Romney's VP pick. In recent weeks, the campaign has sent out emails to supporters soliciting contributions as part of a contest offering a chance to meet Romney and his running mate. More recently, the campaign unveiled a mobile phone application, Mitt's VP, that promises to reveal the name of Romney's running mate before it is announced to the media.

In recent days, Romney has repeatedly declined to offer any hints about who he might pick--most recently in an interview with NBC News on Thursday. Asked about the vice presidential announcement during a media briefing on Friday, Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom directed reporters to download the campaign's mobile app. Upon landing in Virginia on Friday night, the presumptive Republican nominee boarded a new campaign bus touting his plan to "strengthen" the middle class--but there were no hints that a vice presidential announcement was coming.

Romney and his vice presidential candidate are scheduled to travel throughout Virginia Saturday, before heading to North Carolina on Sunday, Florida on Monday and Ohio on Tuesday. Romney aides are hoping the VP pick will offer new energy to a campaign that has been besieged by negative attacks from President Barack Obama's campaign and bad headlines about Romney's own strategy.

Ryan, 42, has been viewed by Republicans as a game-changing pick for the Romney campaign--a rising star Republican who has been praised as a conservative intellectual. But perhaps most importantly, Ryan and Romney get along. In the run-up to the Wisconsin primary in early April, the two campaigned together nearly everyday for a week--with Ryan even playing an April Fool's Day joke on the GOP candidate. Reporters trailing Romney at the time noted the budding "bromance" between the two men--a description Romney aides did not dispute.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/mitt-romney-announce-vp-pick-saturday-032140054.html

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