Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney chose Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as his running mate for the 2012 campaign this morning. Romney announced his pick in Norfolk, Va., where a large crowd applauded the new GOP ticket.
During the announcement, Romney introduced Ryan as "the next president of the United States, Paul Ryan!" — as Mark Memmott noted in his earlier post.
As Ryan began his speech, Romney made his way back to the microphone to correct himself. Joking about his flub, he added, "I did not make a mistake with this guy."
Still, observers pounced on the slip, making sure that no one on Twitter would be ignorant that it had happened.
As NBC's Brian Williams noted on air and Politico reports, the "next president" line seems to plague candidates for America's highest office.
Back in 2008, candidate Barack Obama introduced his running mate as "the next president" — before correcting himself to "the next vice president of the United States of America: Joe Biden!"
Perhaps seeking to prove that he, too, has what it takes to run for the presidency, Biden, Obama's former rival for the Democratic nomination, was not to be outdone. He returned the favor by calling his new running mate "the next president of the United States — Barack America."
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