Hispanics and women top the list of most buzzed about 2012 Republican vice presidential candidates as the party seeks to build on its shrinking base of whites, according to several GOP officials.
[Who's In and Out for the GOP in 2012?]
"The next vice president will be brown, maybe a woman," a top Republican official told Whispers. And if not, look for somebody with budget-cutting chops to satisfy the Tea Party, the insiders add.
So who? Several political experts helped us develop the list of the top 10 most buzzed about Republican vice presidential possibilities.
[See a slide show of GOP vice presidential possibilities getting the most buzz.]
1. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Strong Hispanic ties, good relations with seniors and who could help any nominee win Florida.
2. Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval. Western, Hispanic links and a strong anticrime background.
3. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. Federalist who fights for states rights and whose state has a budget surplus.
4. New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez. Latina who's tough on crime.
5. Rep. Michele Bachmann. Should she fall short in presidential race, she'd be tops with Tea Party.
6. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. A former head of the Office of Management and Budget, he fixed his state's economy and has written a new book laying out a tough fix to the nation's economic ills.
7. Ohio Sen Rob Portman. He is another former White House budget chief who has proposed strong economic programs in the Senate.
8. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. A woman and daughter of immigrants from India, she's practiced conservative principles in working to fix the state's budget.
9. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Son of Indian immigrants, he's been talked about as a presidential candidate.
10. Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan. Youthful, Midwestern, and a GOP budget boy genius who wrote the House-passed 2013 budget that conservatives love and Democrats hate.
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