An Apple TV reboot could be a game-changer

(Wired) -- Even six months ago, Apple TV was the big snoozer in Apple's consumer hardware line-up. The device is a simple set-top media puck — not much more than a passive conduit for piping iTunes, Netflix and iPad content to one's TV.

But, oh, how times have changed.

On the eve of WWDC 2012 -- Apple's annual developers' conference -- speculation swirls around Apple's positioning as a television manufacturer, and how Apple TV might play into a greater television hardware strategy. Indeed, an Apple TV reboot could be a game changer. And it would also be the WWDC highlight for users of the set-top puck, for app developers, and even for the TV entertainment industry at large.

Now, granted, Apple just revamped the Apple TV user interface with the launch of the third-generation iPad. So in some respects, it seems unlikely that Apple would feature the product in another media event just a few months later.

But the streaming TV companion still offers vast untapped potential. And with the attendance of thousands of devoted developers, WWDC is the perfect venue to announce a new Apple TV platform that exposes API support. And we can't forget how Tim Cook recently said the TV space is "an area of intense interest" for Apple.

The next 'must have' technology gadget

New Apple CEO makes rare appearance

Steve Jobs in 2005: No one wants to die

Apple TV is one of the best set-top devices in a consumer electronics category that, quite frankly, doesn't enjoy mass consumer report. Think about it: How many of your non-techie friends own either a Roku, Boxee Box, Google TV or Apple TV? Nonetheless, Apple TV sales are picking up momentum: The device is on track to sell twice as many units as were sold in 2011.

The upshot: Apple doesn't need to announce its own television set at WWDC to make waves in the living room space. If it can reinvent Apple TV into a truly compelling, mass-market consumer product, it can realize Steve Jobs' dream of finally cracking the television code.

Apple just needs to address a few key areas before Apple TV becomes a really big deal.

Apps, apps, and AirPlay

"What we might see at WWDC is Apple opening up the app economy approach they've had with the iPhone and iPad to the Apple TV," Gartner analyst Michael McGuire told Wired.

Apple has well over 600,000 apps in the iOS App Store, but only eight third-party content choices (e.g., Netflix, MLB.com, Flickr, etc.) on Apple TV. So WWDC offers the perfect opportunity to introduce developers to how they could start expanding Apple TV's repertoire of content choices. Indeed, BGR reported that Apple would be introducing an entirely new OS and API for developers to take advantage of.

There are two possible ways Apple could open up the Apple TV platform to third-party app developers: It could allow devs to create dedicated TV apps, or it could more heavily leverage (and open up) the AirPlay feature already baked into Apple TV to port existing iPad apps to the big screen.

"We've been focused on trying to understand how the app model evolves with the introduction of the TV platform," Jeremy Allaire, CEO of online video platform Brightcove told Wired.

Indeed, Allaire detailed his thoughts on what could be next for Apple TV in an op-ed Monday morning. Allaire believes that instead of requiring developers to code for a third application platform (the TV), AirPlay Mirroring could be used with existing iPad apps.

AirPlay Mirroring "essentially turns your iPad into a powerful TV Apps platform that can render any application on the TV while enabling the user to use their touch-based device to browse, select, navigate, etc.," Allaire wrote in his piece. It makes sense.

iPad apps are already built for a screen with a lot of real estate, and it wouldn't be unnatural to, say, flick through Wired's iPad app with your finger while actually reading the content on the big screen.

"AirPlay functionality is a bit hidden from users and not super easy for developers to implement," Allaire said of the feature in its current state, so there's ample room for improvement.

NPD principal analyst Ross Rubin also believes "a multiscreen component that builds off AirPlay" could be in the stars.

More content

"To get people beyond the hardcore Mac fans, you need a lot of content," McGuire said. For example, average consumers want to see sports — live sports.

So, for the Apple TV to break out of its "hobby" label (a label Tim Cook might wish he had never used), its content offerings will need to drastically expand. But live content is hard to come by without a cable or satellite subscription, and that may remain so.

"History has shown that Apple hasn't shown the same kind of influence with the studios that they had with the [music] labels in the early days of the iPod," Rubin said. However, in light of recent announcements on the Xbox platform, McGuire thinks Apple could be inking deals with the same content providers who've partnered with Microsoft: ESPN, NBA, Univision, and Nickelodeon.

To go mainstream and become a true cable/satellite replacement for cord cutters, Apple TV would need to provide the "equivalent experience of hundreds of programming options at any point in time," McGuire said. Expanded app offerings could certainly help with this, but live streaming content would really seal the deal.

Ditch the remote

"The other area that's getting a lot of rumor traction is opening up the Siri interface, which for both the existing apps on Apple TV, as well as new apps, could be very interesting," McGuire said.

This could be accomplished through a peripheral add-on to Apple TV, as Allaire proposed for a forward-looking Apple TV experience. And, of course, Siri could handshake with the current Apple TV via coordination with the iPhone 4S (and maybe even the third-generation iPad, if it too receives Siri support as rumored.)

Apple could also take an Xbox Kinect-like approach, launching camera devices in its TV products for 3-D gesture recognition. As for relevance to WWDC, this would mean a new gesture-based motion API for developers to manage user interaction and face detection, with an actual hardware accessory to arrive in the more distant future.

But, heck, Apple already has patents on 3-D gesture recognition using the iPad, so perhaps an additional accessory isn't even necessary. "Apple can do a lot with the box they have in terms of disrupting and changing people's expectations of what TV is," McGuire said.

Read More

Milky Way will be hit head-on

Four billion years from now, a collision between the Milky Way (left) and Andromeda (right) galaxies will have ripped out streams of stars, warped the galactic shapes and turned Earth’s night sky into a dramatic swirl of starlight.

The monstrous Andromeda galaxy and the Milky Way are destined to hit head-on, not in a glancing blow, new observations from the Hubble Space Telescope show.
By precisely locating the same stars in Andromeda in 2002 and then again in 2010, astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore have calculated how the galaxy has moved against the background of deep space — confirming that the galaxy’s sideways motion is but a fraction of the speed at which it’s hurtling toward the Milky Way.
Andromeda is 2.5 million light-years away and closing in on the Milky Way at 250,000 miles per hour. The cosmic collision will transform the heavens into a hallucinogenic swirl 4 billion years from now. Calculations suggest that the sun will be tossed out during this galactic mash-up, to drift erratically in the eventual single, large galaxy that will coalesce from the two.

Read More

Santorum lays out his political future

Washington (CNN) - Two months after he suspended his presidential campaign, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum on Friday laid out his future plans as he looks for ways to make sure his voice is heard and his influence is felt as a leader of the conservative wing of the Republican Party.

Santorum announced he was forming Patriot Voices, a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization he said would promote some of his key issues, including a commitment to family.

– Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker
– Check out the CNN Electoral Map and Calculator and game out your own strategy for November.
"One of the things that we found as we traveled around the country is that people came up to me a lot and said I was out there speaking about things that gave voice to their concerns and a lot of issues," Santorum said in an interview on Fox News. "People are concerned obviously about the economy, about national security. But I think a lot of people have a basic anxiety with where America is going, and I try to talk about those."
Santorum said issues like manufacturing and religious liberty were important to many Americans, but were being ignored by members of both parties.
"We wanted to put together an organization that reflected those voices across America," Santorum said, adding that Patriot Voices would help a number of candidates running for office, including presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
On Thursday, sources close to Santorum said he was setting up the organization to provide himself a vehicle to push issues important to him and a platform to stay engaged.
"He needs to set up those political foundations going forward, to take his message forward and to build the support base he will need in the future," said Brent Bozell, a conservative activist and chairman of the organization ForAmerica.
In addition to discussing his latest move in media appearances Friday, Santorum is scheduled to speak before what will likely be a very friendly audience of conservatives at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Chicago.
Santorum, whom activists call a standard-bearer for the conservative wing of the party, has been looking for ways to promote the causes and principles he pushed during the campaign, such as repealing the Obama administration's health care reform initiative, building the nation's manufacturing sector and trumpeting ways to strengthen the family.
As a staunch opponent of abortion and proponent of traditional marriage, he is widely perceived to be a major voice for those causes in the GOP.
"It was pretty obvious social conservatism had a champion in the presidential race, and that was Rick Santorum," Hogan Gidley, the Santorum campaign communications director, told CNN. "It is pretty clear there is an appetite" for that in the party, he added.
Several conservative leaders who have talked to Santorum told CNN that he wants to be active politically and to make sure he stays engaged.
In an e-mail to supporters last month, Santorum previewed his next chapter. "I am extremely excited that I will soon be sharing with you exactly how we can play a major role in defeating Obama, elect trusted conservatives all across the country, and hold candidates accountable to the promises they make to us at election time. And believe me, I am going to need you to play a critical role."
Santorum will also have available the resources of the Red, White and Blue Fund - the super PAC that backed his presidential bid. It has since turned into a leadership group that can help support Santorum's political travel, donate to political candidates he backs and give him a platform. It had just under $324,000 in the bank as of April 30.
He will have to use the donor lists gathered from his presidential bid to raise funds and finance his efforts. His campaign still had debt totaling more than $2 million at the end of April, and he has sent out e-mails to supporters urging them to help him erase it.
Santorum won a lot of praise from the conservative wing of the party for being the last major opponent against Romney in the primary.
"More than any other conservative who ran for president this year he has a following because he was the last person standing," long-time conservative leader Richard Viguerie, a friend of Santorum's, told CNN. "He has a big following now and can build that larger."
Before he pulled out, the Romney and Santorum campaigns and the candidates themselves exchanged harsh words. It's not clear, however, just how much the wounds have healed.
Santorum met with Romney a month after pulling out and endorsed him on May 7 in a late-night email, which some analysts described as tepid because the actual announcement fell in the 13th paragraph.
Santorum defended the way he announced the endorsement in an interview on NBC's "Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
"It was a rough-and-tumble campaign," he said on the show. "I can't say it would have been an easy thing the next day to turn around and say, 'Let's just go forward.' It was tough and so I wanted an opportunity to, sort of, think about it a little bit and (allow) family think about it."
Santorum has yet to appear with Romney on the campaign trail, though representatives for Santorum and Romney have held some discussions about Santorum hitting the road for the presumptive GOP nominee, one source with knowledge of the matter told CNN.
"I do think Santorum has a role to play on the campaign trail and that role is to bridge the differences between team Romney and social conservatives," said Ford O'Connell, who worked on the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008.
He stressed Santorum would boost the Republican ticket by campaigning in Iowa and in areas with a large concentration of blue collar workers, such as Ohio and Pennsylvania.
"It does behoove Santorum to go out on the campaign trail because he is trying to run in either 2016 or run for another office down the road," O'Connell said.
Santorum has recently waded into the political waters with some endorsements of conservatives running in recent Senate primaries: former Texas solicitor general Ted Cruz, Indiana treasurer Richard Mourdock and Nebraska attorney general Jon Bruning.
Later Friday, Santorum will appear at fundraisers for Cruz and the Texas Republican Party.
Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, said one area where Santorum can have influence will be to help build support for House and Senate candidates because he connects with conservative supporters.
"He can use that and build upon that to help support conservative candidates," Perkins told CNN. "He has a very important role to play."
Besides mapping out his next political steps, he also has had to figure out how to support his family financially. He is expected to be a major draw on the speaking circuit.

Read More

House Republicans Vote To Defund Obama Immigration Efforts

WASHINGTON -- The House voted on Thursday to kill nearly every action by the Obama administration to reform the immigration enforcement system, approving amendments that would separate U.S. citizens from their undocumented spouses and end prioritization of deporting dangerous unauthorized immigrants.
"The administration is now saying, 'I don't like the laws, I won't enforce them,'" Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) said in support of an amendment proposed by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). "It would be equitable to an officer saying, 'I'm not going to enforce any drug laws, because I want to wait -- I may see a bank robber.'"
That amendment, and the 11 others offered and adopted by the GOP, stripped funding from government programs meant to make the immigration process, and treatment of immigrants, more humane and targeted toward the most dangerous. Many of the adopted measures transferred funding to border security, even though Customs and Border Protection would receive a $208 million increase in funding under Obama's proposed fiscal year 2013 budget.
Republicans have generally opposed every action by the Obama administration on immigration, even though deportations increased to record levels under his watch.
King's amendment -- one of the two that were introduced by the immigration hardliner and later approved -- would prohibit funding to implement the "Morton Memo," a document from Immigration and Customs Director John Morton in June 2011 that lays out priorities for deportation based on the fact that funding is too limited to deport all of the estimated 11 million undocumented people in the country. ICE took up a review in August 2011 under those guidelines to close deportation cases deemed low-priority -- an effort that so far has been less fruitful than expected.
Still, the administration and advocates argue that with limited funding, this type of prosecutorial discretion is necessary.
"You're going to go after the dangerous gang member before you're going to go after someone that is double parked or jaywalking," Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said in opposition to the amendment. "That is what police do all over the United States."
Another adopted amendment, proposed by Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), would ban the administration from granting waivers that would allow some undocumented family members of U.S. citizens -- spouses, parents and children -- to stay in the country while applying for legal status, which was proposed by Obama in January. Under current policy, those immediate family members must leave the country before they can return, without knowing when exactly they will be reunited with their U.S.-citizen families.
"This proposed rule ... makes it easier for illegals to stay in our country unlawfully," Graves said on the House floor. "But the core impact of the proposed rule would be to encourage relatives of U.S. citizens to come to the U.S. illegally."
Other adopted amendments included cutting funding for the ICE public advocate, a position created in February to work with stakeholders on their concerns about the system; blocking funding for a 2000 executive order that would aid non-English speakers; and banning so-called "sanctuary cities," which instruct police to avoid asking about immigration status because it is a federal duty.
Two Democratic amendments were adopted: Rep. Keith Ellison's (D-Minn.) amendment aimed at preventing racial profiling and a measure from Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) to limit the use of unmanned drones.

Read More

Frustrated liberals want more from Obama

They are trying to be hopeful, but the Democratic Party's most passionate voters are struggling to hide their frustration with President Barack Obama.
Republicans may attack the president as a big-government liberal, but many liberals meeting Thursday at Netroots Nation -- an annual convention likened to "a giant family reunion for the left" -- argue that Obama hasn't fought hard enough for progressive priorities on taxes, health care and the economy. Even more problematic for the president is this: With the election just five months away, some are threatening not to donate money or time or even vote in November for the man who overwhelmingly ignited their passions and captured their imaginations four years ago.
"I want to be happy with him," said Democrat Kristine Vaughan, a 45-year-old school psychologist from Canton, Ohio. "But I am finding that he has succumbed to the corporate influence as much as everyone else. I think he has so much potential to break out of that, but overall he has been a disappointment."
Vaughan isn't sure whether she'll vote for Obama a second time and probably won't donate money as she did during his first campaign. She refuses to support Republican challenger Mitt Romney, but is considering writing in another candidate in protest.
The sentiment is not unique among the 2,700 people gathered on the first day of this three-day convention. More than a dozen liberals interviewed here indicated some level of frustration with the president, despite widespread praise for his recent decision to support gay marriage and ongoing push to scale back military action in the Middle East.
Most plan on voting for Obama, but their varying levels of enthusiasm could spell trouble for a president whose 2008 victory was fueled by a massive network of grass-roots volunteers and small-dollar donors. Polls show the president locked in a tight race that's likely to be decided in several swing states where he scored narrow victories four years ago.
"He's done a good job, but he could have done a lot better," said Ed Tracey, 55, of Lebanon, N.H., who heads his local chapter of the group, Drinking Liberally.
Tracey was one of Obama's many small-dollar donors four years ago, but his dissatisfaction has affected his generosity: "I decided that unless I thought he really needed it, I wouldn't contribute," he said.
Despite the criticism, polling suggests Republicans may face a larger enthusiasm gap than Democrats.
In late May, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 93 percent of Obama voters said they are enthusiastic about voting for him, including 51 percent who were very enthusiastic. For Romney supporters, 75 percent were enthusiastic, and just 26 percent were very enthusiastic.
Still, a closer look at the Democratic base shows an evolution of enthusiasm -- or lack thereof -- over the past four years.
The widespread belief in Obama's message of hope and change turned to frustration as the president yielded to Republican pressure by devoting a significant portion of the 2009 stimulus package to tax cuts. Liberals were further irked when he abandoned the so-called "public option" in his health care overhaul, didn't go after big banks more aggressively in his financial overhaul bill and supported the extension of Bush-era tax cuts.
Now, many say Obama is not fighting hard enough for tax increases on the wealthy to help close the federal deficit.
"I look forward to him fighting much harder," said Arshad Hasan, executive director of Democracy for America, a group founded by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.
But, like many liberals here, Hasan offered a mixed review of the president. He said Obama's decision to support gay marriage was "a huge accomplishment for progressives." He also was hopeful that Obama might shift further to the left should he win a second term.
"There's also a strain of thought among progressives that he's waiting until after the election to come out and be more boldly progressive," Hasan said. "I don't know which way that's going to go, but I know that either way, we get a much better deal than if Mitt Romney is elected."
Indeed, instead of hope and change, Democrats are trying to rally around their dislike for Romney, a man whom many are still getting to know.
Massachusetts-based liberal radio host Jeff Santos held the first stop of "the Real Romney tour" at the conference. The event was designed to highlight perceived weaknesses in the former Massachusetts governor's job-creation record and private-sector experience at Bain Capital, the Boston-based private equity firm he co-founded.
"He has no soul," Santos said of Romney.
Romney's association with reality television host Donald Trump drew some of the most heated criticism, especially given Romney's unwillingness to condemn Trump's repeated questioning of Obama's birthplace.
"If Mitt Romney can't stand up to a birther who's putting out racist conspiracy theories, how can he lead on other issues?" asked Rashad Robinson, executive director of Color of Change, a liberal group that promotes African-American political influence.
Robinson said some blacks now have less enthusiasm for Obama.
"President Obama hasn't done everything we wanted. But we know what Romney would do," he said. "Mitt Romney has said things like he doesn't really care about the very poor. And for a community that is facing unemployment levels the black community is facing, we may not be going to the polls with hope, but that doesn't mean we won't be turning out."


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/08/frustrated-liberals-want-more-from-obama/#ixzz1xDXzkO00

Read More

2012 bellwether emerges in central Virginia

Richmond, Virginia (CNN) -- Strategists for Barack Obama and Mitt Romney don't see eye to eye on much, but they do agree on this: It's tough to envision a path to the White House that doesn't include Virginia.

And as they look for ways to tip the balance in November, an unlikely bellwether is emerging in the heart of Virginia: Henrico County, a longtime conservative bastion that has mutated into a key barometer for political watchers in the commonwealth.

"It's the battleground county in the battleground state," said state Sen. Donald McEachin, a Democrat whose district encompasses parts of Henrico. "When you look at Democratic success over the past few years, whether it's Tim Kaine, Mark Warner or the president, what they all have in common is, they carried Henrico."

The exception to that decade-long trend is Jim Webb, who narrowly lost the county during his successful Senate race against George Allen in 2006.

Henrico's swing status was affirmed in 2009, when Bob McDonnell wrested the county back into Republican control in the governor's race just one year after Obama won it during his march to the White House.

For operatives in both political parties, the county's shift from conservative to competitive is striking.

Along with Hanover and Chesterfield, Henrico is one of three populous suburban counties outside the heavily African-American city of Richmond that were long counted on to deliver big Republican tallies in statewide races.

Until Obama won Henrico in 2008 by a 56% to 44% margin over John McCain -- a result that echoed his 52% to 46% win statewide -- the county was a killing field for Democrats in presidential races.

George H.W. Bush swamped Michael Dukakis there in 1988 and did the same against Bill Clinton four years later. The county went for Bob Dole over Clinton in 1996. George W. Bush won Henrico twice.

The county, the fifth largest in the state, is steeped in history and conservative tradition.

Founded in 1611 and named for Prince Henry, the typhoid-stricken eldest son of King James I, Henrico was one of the Virginia colony's eight original "shires": a point of pride for locals.

Today, tidy neighborhood roads are dotted with state-funded "Historical Highway Markers" that highlight minor Civil War skirmishes like "Dahlgren's Raid" and more momentous events like "Stuart's Mortal Wound."

Public schools bear the names of Harry F. Byrd, the towering founder of the Byrd Organization who ruled the state's politics for decades, and Mills E. Godwin, who helped Byrd implement the infamous program of "massive resistance" to school desegregation.

One high school, Douglas Southall Freeman, is named for Robert E. Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer. Its mascot is the "Rebel," though students long ago stopped waving the Confederate battle flag at football games as the school band played "Dixie."

Over the past 20 years, demographic shifts, steady growth and a burgeoning African-American population on the county's eastern side have transformed the county politically.

Affluent white voters are increasingly opting to settle in Chesterfield or Hanover instead. Out-of-state newcomers, known locally as "come-heres," have arrived in large numbers, further diluting Henrico's conservative flavor.

"It's gone Republican, and it's gone Democrat, and it's because there is a big group of independents who will vote the person and vote the issue, and where those independents go, that's where the elections go," McDonnell said.

African-Americans now account for a third of Henrico residents, up from 20% two decades ago, according to census data.

"Henrico is now more divided east and west than it's ever been," said Ray Allen, a veteran GOP consultant in Richmond. "And the reason for that, if you actually look at the voter trend, it's the growth in the east end of Henrico. It's now more minority than it ever was.

"Obama won Henrico in 2008 because he did very well in the east end," Allen said. "Bob McDonnell did really well in the 2009 governor's race because he was winning all the Republican areas in the west end and those swing moderates, the suburban vote."

The geographic and racial divide is reflected in the state's congressional map.

The west end of Henrico falls into the 7th District, represented by House majority leader and staunch conservative Eric Cantor.

The east end is carved into Rep. Bobby Scott's majority-minority 3rd District.

But the racial makeup is more complicated than just black and white. A swelling immigrant population in Henrico includes not just Latinos but emergent Vietnamese, Cambodian, Indian and Bosnian communities.

Democrats and Republicans alike say the area is increasingly taking on the character of the rest of the state.

"On election night, I want to know what Henrico is doing," said former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, a Republican who lost the county to Kaine in the 2005 governor's race. "It's really gone from red to purple in the last five to seven years. As Henrico goes, I think, the state will go in the presidential race and the Senate race, mainly because of the diversity in the county."

Levar Stoney, a Democratic operative advising likely gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, said the county has a little bit of everything: moderates, conservatives, liberals, blacks, evangelicals, business types and more.

"It's a cross-section of Virginia," he said. "If you find out what the vote total is on election night in Henrico, you will probably have a good idea of where Virginia is on election night as well."

The changing face of Henrico is a prime reason Obama's campaign in Virginia is once again targeting the area aggressively.

The campaign has two organizers dedicated to Henrico County: one for the predominantly black east end and another for the west end.

At the opening of their Henrico field office Saturday -- it's the Obama campaign's 15th office in the state -- organizers told a group of about 60 volunteers, most of them women, that the work ahead of them will be even more daunting than it was in 2008.

Since McDonnell's convincing victory two and a half years ago, Virginia Republicans have built the kind of sophisticated voter contact operation they sorely lacked during the last presidential race.

In big counties like Henrico, GOP turnout is expected to be markedly higher than it was when Obama won the state.

That leaves the Obama team with the difficult task of re-energizing supporters from the previous campaign along with identifying new voters, all while convincing skeptical independents who have retreated from Obama over the last three years to come back into the fold.

Lise Clavel, Obama's state director in Virginia, told the Henrico volunteers in stark terms that the campaign is certain to be outspent in the commonwealth by Mitt Romney and his allies.

"They are getting laser focused on Barack Obama now," Clavel told the group. "Those guys are coming after us, and they are coming after us hard."

Bridgit Donnelly, one of the campaign's regional field directors, echoed the warning as she tried to sign up neighborhood team leaders for Obama.

"This is going to be a huge fight to make sure we can turn Henrico blue again in November," she said.

Read More

Romney's VP candidates face 'intimate examination'

(CNN) -- One senator who has survived the vice presidential vetting process described it this way: Like having a colonoscopy without anesthesia.

The probing, highly personal examination that a presidential candidate uses to pick a running mate is uniquely American. Yet it is entirely shielded from public view: Those who submit themselves to it must bow to a secret, often uncomfortable "deep dive" for information by a small, exclusive tribunal of lawyers and accountants trying to wrest any skeletons out of a candidate's closet.

"It's every aspect of your life," former Al Gore 2000 presidential campaign manager Donna Brazile said. As former Bob Dole 1996 campaign manager Scott Reed put it, the examination includes digging into "sex, drugs and rock and roll."

Since presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's vice president meetings and deliberations are secret, a typical campaign practice, it's anyone's guess who is actually being vetted. But if Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and other potential candidates have been asked and have agreed to a vetting, they are virtually assured a process even more intense than the vetting they faced while running for office.

Who might run with Romney?

It's "the most intimate examination known to politics," Sen. John McCain's 2008 vetting chief A.B. Culvahouse recently wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

"No other candidate, not even the presidential nominee himself, is subjected to the same scrutiny."

Romney is intimately familiar with the process. In 2008 he submitted to a vetting to be McCain's running mate.

Simple process becomes a deep dive

The process usually begins simply: drawing from various sources, such as a candidate's preferred picks and names from others, a vetting team will draw up a list of potential vice president picks.

In his book "An Amazing Adventure," written with his wife, Hadassah Lieberman, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman said that in 2000, Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Al Gore's initial list of potential running mates contained 30 or 40 names. Similarly, Culvahouse wrote that McCain's team prepared initial vetting reports on a list of more than two dozen people, none of whom knew they were being vetted.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker shoots down VP talk

Acting essentially as private investigators, vetters mine the Internet and public records, like newspaper articles and disclosure forms, for information on the potential candidates. Those chosen for further inspection will be asked to agree to a confidential vetting. If they agree, the candidates fill out a multiple-page questionnaire. How a candidate answers could generate a list of more probing questions.

"They're looking for things that could be embarrassing," Reed said.

In 2008, McCain's potential vice presidents -- including then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin -- faced 70 questions. Among them: Have you ever paid for sex? Have you ever been fairly or unfairly accused of sexual harassment? Have you ever hired an illegal immigrant?

Culvahouse talked about the questioning in his recent Journal opinion piece.

Explaining that he asked potential picks "questions I would not dream of posing in any other context," Culvahouse added, "Yet, as in all campaigns, if we had allowed good manners to intervene, anything we missed surely would have been dredged up by someone else."

"We asked about infidelity, sexual harassment, discrimination, plagiarism, alcohol or drug addiction, delinquent taxes, credit history and use of government positions or resources for personal benefit. Nothing was off-limits."

Culvahouse wrote that he discussed other matters with Palin: including daughter Bristol's pregnancy, "which the governor raised in a private discussion," ethical allegations against the governor and whether she would authorize a strike against Osama bin Laden if it meant civilian casualties.

All vetting information is ultimately relayed back to the candidate.

Noting her lack of experience on foreign policy and defense matters, Culvahouse said he advised McCain that "Gov. Palin would not be ready to be vice president on January 20, 2009, but that I believed she had the presence and wherewithal to grow into the position."

McCain chief judged Palin 'high-risk, high reward'

"I summed up her selection as 'high risk, high reward.' I stand by that advice," Culvahouse wrote.

Palin recalled her side of the vetting process in her book "Going Rogue."

Of Culvahouse's vetting, Palin wrote: "By the time his team of attorneys finished peppering me with questions, I decided that if a person had ever done a single dark and secret thing in their lives, Culvahouse's people would not only find out about it but get eyewitnesses, photos and blood samples."

"These guys knew stuff about me that I had long forgotten: They knew how I had voted on issues during my days on the city council. They reviewed copies of my tax returns. They had transcripts of sermons that visiting pastors had preached at a church I had not attended regularly since I was a teenager. And they were the ones who told [McCain campaign strategist Steve] Schmidt that Bristol was pregnant."

"I was impressed. I also thought, 'Good. They know exactly what they're getting.' "

By all accounts, candidates being vetted must divulge nearly every facet of their lives: surrendering tax returns, medical records, financial statements, court records, employment records, education records and enduring background checks and a thorough check of public statements and voting records.

Surviving the questionnaire and what Reed called the "deep dive" of information, potential vice presidents gain a reward: making it on the so-called "short list," where vetters ramp up their efforts to pull skeletons out of a candidate's closet.

"If you get near the end, you usually get down to what I call, 'Sex, drugs and rock and roll,'" Reed said. "Where it's usually a one-on-one conversation between the chief vetter and the potential candidate."

Reed said this could include "allegations of sexual relations, drug use, alcohol use, other medical conditions that may have been hinted at in medical records. You really have to drill down."

Lieberman recalled in his book the "exhaustive and demanding" vetting experience, led by former Clinton Secretary of State Warren Christopher on Gore's behalf.

"When Warren Christopher called to tell me I had made it to the short list and that they would soon have to start vetting me, he warned, 'Are you still willing to go forward with it, because it's not easy, and it can be a painful process, and there's no way I can reduce the pain?'"

"So I said, 'Chris [which is how he is known], you mean this is kind of like having a colonoscopy without anesthesia?'"

"Chris laughed and agreed," Lieberman wrote.

Eagleton in 1968 taught future candidates a lesson

Helping to guide Lieberman through the process was attorney Jonathan Sallet. Speaking to CNN, Sallet used a historical reference to stress the need for a careful vetting.

He discussed presidential candidate Sen. George McGovern's selection of Missouri Sen. Thomas Eagleton as his running mate in 1972. Eagleton withdrew just 18 days later after his treatment for mental illness and electroshock therapy became public.

"I think that was a lesson that people in both parties learned: that anything that could be considered important by voters needed to be considered important by vetters," Sallet said.

In past times, vice president picks were chosen at the political conventions. Only in recent years have running mates been chosen in a months-long, secret process that culminates in an announcement just before the convention.

Not all skeletons spell doom for consideration.

As Gore's campaign manager, Brazile was not involved in vetting Lieberman. But in her decades-long career in politics, she recalled a multitude of times she has vetted candidates for public office.

"In some cases" scandal can knock a candidate out of consideration, Brazile said.

"Remember, this is the first presidential decision that a presumptive nominee, like a Mitt Romney, will make, like an Al Gore will make," Brazile said. "So you want to get it right. You will be judged by this individual throughout the campaign."

Brazile added: "For a campaign, [damning information] can become an explosive part of a candidate's biography, especially when they're introducing themselves for the first time to the national media and to the public."

Reed echoed the sentiment.

If scandal does emerge, Reed said, "It depends on how severe it is."

"You keep that confidential. But you go back to the candidate and you discuss it," Reed added.

"Dole had a very explicit rule to me: Don't do anything to embarrass anybody," Reed said. "Which means, if you find out information, you don't leak it out to see how it gets vetted out in the court of public opinion."

In the final stretch, a potential running mate typically meets with the presidential candidate in a secret meeting.

Lieberman explained his private meeting with Gore.

"My turn came early one morning in late July, when I was smuggled into the U.S. Naval Observatory, the vice president's official residence, in the backseat of a van with darkened windows," Lieberman wrote. "Over breakfast, Gore said that this was awkward because we were friends, but he had to interview me."

"I told him not to worry. I knew how important this decision was, and he should feel comfortable asking whatever he wanted to know."

"He then proceeded to ask, in essence, 'Why should I pick you?' "

Read More