I may find out if Pawlenty is the running mate today...

[TomC]

Exciting!

[TomC]

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Well, we know Pawlenty has that rock star appeal. Smartass.  
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I meant exciting for you and was being quite sincere.

[TomC]

Romney's Mormonism is the least of his baggage.

[TomC]

Ridge's proximity to Ohio is about as relevant as Pawlenty's to Wisconsin.

The main problem with the neighboring state advantage: Even if people know who someone is, that doesn't mean they have a strong opinion of them. My parents know who Pawlenty is (thanks mostly to WCCO talk radio when they're visiting down here), but that doesn't mean they can tell you anything about him other than that he's the governor of Minnesota or have an opinion strong enough of him to influence their vote either way.

You just described about half of the Presidential electorate.

[TomC]

Romney doesn't help enough in Michigan to carry it... not by a long shot.  He might know people there, but they are the wrong crowd to appeal to.  The people Ridge knows in PA and Ohio are grassroots types, who are real Reagan Democrats, Hillary voters, and would be enticed to come out of us if Ridge is on the ticket.  The only way we don't win PA with ridge is if McCain himself proves to be too unpalatable for voters here... and if Ridge is a move to the center, then good.  McCain has swung so far to the right now to risk being unpalatable to the country as a whole.  We need to play to the middle.  As go those other states... if we absolutely need Colorado, Nevada and New Hampshire to win, then this thing is already over.  That's barely a third as many EV's as Ridge assists us with.

"Wrong crowd to appeal to", I don't even know what that means.

And the Romney name won Michigan in the primaries, so...

He won with about 39% of the vote in what was basically a 3-way race (only McCain, Romney, and Huckabee really contested the state).  And he outspent both McCain and Huckabee by about 3 or 4 to 1.  And of course this was a GOP primary, not a general election.  And according to exit polls, in pretty much every state (including MI), McCain cleaned up with self described moderates and GE swing voters, whereas Romney did better with GOP stalwarts....who are probably going to vote for McCain in the general election anyway.  I'd like to see evidence that Romney is actually popular with Michigan swing voters.

Don't forget McCain saying the auto jobs were never coming back.