as beth meyers said there, i think it's his management style.goes through and looks at the data. he's a data-driven person, as we all know, looks at all of the data and then solicits advice and as george bush famously said, he's the decider. so i think that's what happened in this case, and i think in the case of paul ryan, fredericka, what he did is he made a bold decision that lots of people didn't expect him to make because, quite honestly, it's risky. it's a very risky discussion because what it does is it crystallizes this campaign, polarizes to a great degree. it makes the competing visions between obama and romney that much clearer and while it will galvanize the republican base, there is a down side here because independent voters, senior citizens, for example, could be -- could be turned off by paul ryan and his -- and his budget plan. >> so you mentioned some pretty powerful words there. he could be risky and it does offer a distinction. >> it does underscore that the selection of the running mate is indeed, probably the most important

beth meyers was chief of staff. >> people call you romney's romney. >> we stat in offices that had aus. we popped back and forth all day and talked about faith and the issues of the day. >> first order of business, treat government like a business. >> we have a huge deficit. we would have stacks and stacks of budget books and line by line, mitt would meet in his staff office every morning with the cabinet secretaries. >> it was the way he had always done it. at bain, at the olympics. here not everyone was on romney's team. >> he was a different cat than what people on beacon hill were used to. that's a good thing. >> i got better overtime and know i made mistake takes in how i dealt with others, but we started off pretty well. >> then two years into his term, he set sights on something bigger. something that would mean a legacy. health care. >> he not had a major achievement as a political success in a future campaign. he needed something to say i had done this and it was a big deal. >> romney decided to push for health care to cover everyone in the state. that meant mandating most r

gloria spoke with beth meyers who head the the search for a running mate. >> you have been very involved in the vetting and the process of choosing a vice presidential running mate which is very, very important. it's the first chance people get to look at how a president makes decisions. what is it about the process of choosing a vice president, what does it tell us about how mitt romney makes decisions? >> well, working with him as chief of staff in the governor's office for four years, there is a way, he is methodical in making decisions. he wants all the information. we went about a very thorough process in making sure we had a lot of information. about a broad group. he doesn't like to rule anything out until he has to. when the first swath is brought, we have a good cut of information about a lot of people. he nair ode it down and we got more information. personal information from each of the potential candidates. at that point again, we had attorneys look through and go through everybody's record to make sure i didn't want to miss anything about them. then mitt took these candidate

you sat down last tuesday with beth meyers who is really in charge of this selection committee for mitt romney who would be the vice presidential running mate. >> that's right. i sat down with beth myers. she would only let me get in a couple of questions about the vice presidential selection because she knew presumably who the choice would be, but we did not. i asked her general questions about what this tells us about the way mitt romney makes decisions. let's take a look. >> you've been very involved in the vetting and the process of choosing a vice presidential running mate which is very, very important. it's the first chance people get to look at how a president makes decisions. so what is it about the process of choosing a vice president, what does that tell us about how mitt romney makes decisions? >> well, that's something i learned working with him as chief of staff in the -- at the governor's office for four years. there is a way -- he's very methodical in making his decisions and what he wants is a couple things. first of all, he wants all the information. and we went -- we w

that, of course, is beth meyers the head of the vice presidential selection process.urned from his foreign trip. he asked to meet with ryan in person. they subsequently met and the offer was made. that according to a top romney adviser. no word, wolf, as to when they sealed this deal waiting to get some guidance on that. we are starting to put some of the pieces together, that a call was made, it looks like, on august 1st, to paul ryan. not only did mitt romney make this decision and know about this decision august 1st and keep this all a secret from the rest of us for two week, so did paul ryan. >> interesting stuff. john king, should we be surprised this decision is being announced even before the formal end of the olympic games? we all thought he didn't want to do that, because that would take away some of the excitement. >> well, if you think paul ryan is a surprise, you might think the timing is a surprise as well. look, one person and one person alone decides who and how. i'm sure governor romney's staff just yesterday we were having a lot of conversations, a lo

>> well, there are three people who know the answer, mitt romney, and his wife, ann, and his beth meyer talking the me or anybody else, but the speculation is around these three gentlemen. and tim pawlenty, the two-term governor of minnesota, and he ran against mitt romney and dropped out last august, and since then he has been a huge romney surrogate. and what about rob portman? he is a senator from ohio and congressman from there, too, and he was in the bush administration with two cabinet positions there, and a lot of people talking about porman saying he would be a good fit for mitt romney. and neither of the men are flashy and safer picks for mitt romney. then there is paul ryan, the house budget chairman from wisconsin, another important state, and a t and to dday the "wall street journal" editorial page influential with the conservatives urgebed romney to name ryan who is beloved by tea party activists and fiscal conservatives about his house plan to change medicare as we know it. don? >> and we saw the picture of bobby jindal, the louisiana governor up there. all right. that is

the division was made or at least announced to beth meyers august 3rd. he got in touch with paul ryan and got this process started. yesterday, they very quickly scrambled to put this event together. the folks who organized this and dressed it up overnight didn't know until late yesterday afternoon. as you see there is no ryan signs up there yet. they hadn't even had those made. we will see them before the afternoon is out. it isn't going to happen until this event is well underyway. look for mr. ryan and his remarks now to offer a very scathing criticism of the obama administration. he will repeatedly as he has chairman of the house budget committee say that the obama ha administration has failed in turning the economy around and has contributed more to the national debt than any president in the last few combined. look for mr. ryan as well today to give a full throated endorsement and express a hearty amount of support for mitt romney. there is no secret that the two of them on the campaign trail had a certain chemistry and charisma. they there was a ti

governor romney is talking mostly to beth meyers. she's the head of the process.ple inside say those two know everything. other people pick up pieces of information through the vetting process. they're not willing to rule anybody out. even the people we say have begun speaking roles. they seem to think it's largely a pawlenty, portman, ryan contest. inside the campaign they tend to list them in that order. there are some disagreements. we have to wait and see. >> yeah. we know the conservative magazine, they basically endorsed marco rubio and paul ryan. we'll see how influential they are. they had an important role four years ago in helping select sarah palin. they endorsed her at that point. we'll see if they have that clout this time around. my own guess, john, is it could come as early as a week from today, after the olympics are all done. my own suspicion is it will be next week at some poin. obviously that's just a guess. what are you hearing? >> it's a good guess, and it's a well informed guess in the sense they make a few key points. the olympics are gettin