The result was no consensus. A majority thinks the article is not needed, but we have no consensus for deletion. Sandstein 05:20, 13 May 2012 (UTC) reply
There is no reason to have an article that relays media speculation and WP:CRYSTALBALLing about this matter. The vice-presidential nominee will be chosen by Mitt Romney in August, and speculation by talking heads being paid to make up articles does not mean that a Wikipedia article should be devoted to their prognostication. Of the twenty-three names on this list (and surely someone could dig up a dozen or so more names that have been meaninglessly thrown out there), only a few actually have any chance of being chosen, and of course Mr. Romney could decide on someone else entirely. A few of these can be disqualified by common sense (Trump, Bachmann), and many have vehemently denied any interest in the spot or already refused a theoretical offer (Daniels, Haley, Jindal, Rice, several others). Of course, they've all claimed they weren't interested and you could say things can change, but it's quite clear that many of these do not belong. Even with a few likely short-listers, we simply do not need a separate article listing these names. Mitt Romney presidential campaign, 2012 has a short section about the VP pick that could be expanded with the likely possibilities. But a collection of unsubstantiated hypothetical speculation does not warrant a full article here. Reywas92 Talk 17:51, 5 May 2012 (UTC) reply
Comment. The problem is that the moment Romney actually announces his actual pick, a list of everybody who any media pundit on earth ever published a guess that he might pick becomes a moot and unencyclopedic compendium of WP:TRIVIA that nobody will ever actually have any serious need to consult ever again (except perhaps for a quick, transient giggle at how wrong the majority of the "experts" are going to turn out to have been — but that's not the job of an encyclopedia.) Five hundred years from now, when you and I are reincarnated as academics studying the 2012 US presidential election, we're certainly going to need to know who Romney actually picked — but we're not going to have any serious need to investigate who the media pundits were guessing that he might pick three months before his actual pick was actually announced. Which is why I still believe that all articles which serve only to document third parties' advance speculation about what might happen in a future political event fall afoul of WP:NOTNEWS — because as soon as his running mate is actually announced, the "encyclopedic" value of a speculative list of potential running mates disappears forever. Which is why this kind of thing certainly might be useful on Wikinews, but it doesn't belong here: it's a current event whose article only has value until the Republican convention actually happens in just a few months, and then will never have any real point or purpose to it ever again. It's not something that belongs in an encyclopedia. Bearcat ( talk) 14:56, 6 May 2012 (UTC) reply