Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mitt Romney are the favorites to be their parties’ vice-presidential nominees, according to a popular online betting site.
Intrade, which correctly picked the winner of every state in the 2004 general election, evaluates the veepstakes chances of 30 prominent political figures – 16 Democrats and 14 Republicans.
Among Democrats, Clinton holds a slight lead over Virginia Sen. James Webb, with a 21 percent chance of her being named to the No. 2 spot, compared with Webb’s 19.7 percent.
In a distant third place is New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, at 6.2 percent.
On the GOP side, there are three leaders, Romney at 19.2 percent, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty at 15.6 percent and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 14.1 percent, according to Intrade.
Intrade is one of several online political “prediction markets” in which participants speculate on outcomes of campaigns, election turnout, the chances of a brokered Democratic convention and even whether Eliot Spitzer will get indicted.
Intrade’s participants hedged their bets saying there’s an excellent chance the veep picks will be “none of the above.”
They say there’s a 40.8 percent possibility none of the 14 prominent Republicans drawing attention will get the nod. For Democrats, the figure is 28.5 percent.