Newt Gingrich, Tim Kaine Lead in Vice Presidential Odds

I guess this is vice president week. Election Betting Odds has begun a market in gambling on whom will be the running mates for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. If you’re looking for a short list, go back a page or two to find the picks of Nate and Goethe.

Briefly, here are the names, and odds of their being selected:

HILLARY:

Tim Kaine, VA Senator, 21.5%
Julian Castro, HUD Secretary, 15.5%
Bernie Sanders, VT Senator, 13.0%
Thomas Perez, Labor Secretary10.5%
Sharrod Brown, IN Senator, 10.5%
Elizabeth Warren, MA Senator, 8.5%
Cory Booker, NJ Senator, 6.2%
Mark Warner, VA Senator, 5.5%
Deval Patrick, MA Ex-Governor, 3.5%
Al Franken, MN Senator, 3.5%
Evan Bayh, IN Ex-Senator 3.5%

TRUMP:

Newt Gingrich, Former Speaker, 17.5%
John Kasich, OH Governor, 14.9%
Joni Ernst, IA Senator, 8.3%
Chris Christie, NJ Governor, 7.0%
Jeff Sessions, AL Senator, 7.0%
Mike Huckabee, AR Ex-Governor, 5.5%
Marco Rubio, FL Senator, 5.5%
Condoleeza Rice, Ex-Secretary of State 5.0%
Ben Carson, Ex-Neurosurgeon, 4.9%
Susana Martinez, NM Governor, 4.5%
Democrat Jim Webb, VA Ex-Senator, 3.5%

OK, so who WANTS to run? Marco Rubio, who’ll be out of a job in January, says he doesn’t want to run with Trump.

“While Republican voters have chosen Donald Trump as the presumptive GOP nominee, my previously stated reservations about his campaign and concerns with many of his policies remain unchanged,” Mr. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, wrote in a Facebook post. “He will be best served by a running mate and by surrogates who fully embrace his campaign.

“As such, I have never sought, will not seek and do not want to be considered for Vice President,” he said. “Instead, I will focus my attention on representing the people of Florida, retaining a conservative majority in the Senate and electing principled conservatives across the country.”

Not that anyone asked, but Jan Brewer says she’d be really, really, really interested, according to NewsMax.

In an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Brewer, who endorsed Trump in February, joked about not being on a list of 10 possible vice presidential picks, chiding host Jake Tapper, “Who made up that list? They didn’t put me on there.”
“Would you be willing to be considered?” Tapper responded.

“Of course I would be,” she shot back. “I would be willing to serve in any capacity that I could be of help with Donald on. But that’s a tremendous list of people to choose from, all very wonderful people, well qualified.”

On the Dem side, only one name comes up again and again: Bernie Sanders. And more than a little surprising, he says he’d consider running with Hillary.

Asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer if he would accept a hypothetical offer to be Clinton’s running mate, Sanders said he would talk about it with her after the convention.

Of course, someone needs to explain to Bernie that the vice presidential nominee is chosen at the convention, not afterward—unless you’re Sergeant Shriver. If you’re Carly Fiorina, you can be picked for vice president, even if there’s no president to run with.