Romney to Announce Vice Presidential Pick Saturday Morning

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Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney talks with members of his staff aboard his campaign plane on Aug. 10, 2012 in flight from Mass. to Va.

Mitt Romney will announce his vice presidential pick Saturday morning in Norfolk, Va., his campaign said late Friday night.

After weeks of anticipation, Romney’s campaign released a statement after 11 p.m. Friday night saying that the presumptive Republican nominee would unveil his selection early Saturday morning during a scheduled tour of the U.S.S. Wisconsin, a World War II era battleship in this southern Virginia port city.

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Speculation late Friday night centered on Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, the 42-year old chairman of the House Budget Committee whose vision for entitlement reform has enchanted conservatives. The conservative Weekly Standard reported Friday night that the likeliest choice was Ryan, a seven-term Congressman whose budget blueprint has made him a lionized figure in the GOP and a lightning rod for Democrats. For Romney, picking Ryan would be a uncharacteristically high-risk move that would energize conservatives. It might also be taken as a sign that Romney, who has lost ground in recent national polls, felt the need to shake up the race.

The announcement will kick off a four-day bus tour through a quarter of pivotal swing states, which is designed to highlight “the Romney plan for a stronger middle class.”

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