So if you’re Romney, what do you do? For one, you stick to the schedule. Romney’s calendar has been packed with events to raise campaign dough (or not, if you believe his campaign’s efforts to downplay expectations about the first-quarter fund-raising reports due April 15). You also keep busy in the primary states, like South Carolina, where Romney is today. And you might score points by suggesting, weirdly, that you’d be willing to choose a guy who’s running ahead of you in the polls as your vice presidential pick. Questioned today at a campaign event about possible running mates, Romney said it was really too early to say. But he then volunteered he’d consider asking Gingrich, or even Jeb Bush, to be his No. 2. Bush, Romney acknowledged, is a guy many Republicans had hoped to see on the ticket next year. “I love him,” Romney said of the ex-Florida governor, according to the Associated Press. “If his name weren’t Bush, he’d be running for president, I’m convinced.” And, in a nod (translation: pander) to his surroundings, Romney also said he’d consider South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Sen. Jim DeMint. Afterwards, according to AP, Romney told reporters on the scene that the names he threw out should be considered by anyone who wins the nomination but acknowledged a slight bias. “When I’m in South Carolina, I’m not going to fail to mention some of the ones that are the closest,” he said.
