Mitt Romney Cites Marco Rubio on Short List of Potential Running Mates

"Well, hey, Mitt. That's dandy."

​"Vice President Marco Rubio."

Sound a little strange? 2012 Republican presidential hopeful (and early Florida frontrunner) Mitt Romney said he's thinking about making it happen, according to conservative Virginia blog Bearing Drift.

At a $1,200-per-plate fundraiser in Virginia Beach earlier this week, Romney said his list of potential vice presidential running mates consists of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Florida's newly elected Sen. Rubio, whose 2012 stock is rising despite his best efforts to kill it by doing things like saying "I don't want to be the vice president" on television.

In a Gallup poll released today, Romney polled better than the field of eight formally announced candidates in the poll, picking up 27 percent of the support, ahead of Michele Bachmann's 18 percent and Ron Paul's 11. Among potential candidates, Romney (17 percent) is essentially tied with Texas Gov. Rick Perry (15 percent) when accounting for the margin of error.

Romney, who quoted Fidel Castro at a Miami campaign stop in 2008, has consistently been at the top of national polls, though Gallup-gauged support for Bachmann jumped from 7 percent in June to 18 percent in July. The most recent results are from a poll of 1,088 Republicans and independents and have a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

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