Mitt Romney’s search for a running mate appears to have narrowed, as clues to whom Romney might select as his No. 2 begin to pile up in the media.

A campaign that prides itself on discipline had, to date, exacted tight control over the process of vetting candidates to serve at the former Massachusetts governor’s No. 2, a fact that Romney bragged on Tuesday.

"I get a kick out of some of the speculation that goes on," Romney told Sean Hannity of Fox News in an interview to air this evening. "I'm not going to comment on the process of course, but I can tell you this: only Beth Myers and I know who is being vetted."

That comment came amid new reports on Tuesday that Marco Rubio, the popular Florida Republican senator, had not been asked – yet, at least – to submit the materials typically associated with vetting a vice presidential candidate.

ABC News initially reported that Rubio wasn’t being vetted, and the Washington Post followed up with indications that Rubio hadn’t made it past an initial review by Romney’s high command.

Romney’s quip to Fox served as a knowing acknowledgement, though, of what members of the media have encountered in their search for details on the veepstakes: News is fleeting, largely because the Romney campaign’s high command keeps details on lockdown.

Even some of the most plugged in advisers to Romneyworld profess genuine ignorance of the vetting process.

Myers, Romney’s former chief of staff as governor, is leading the search for a prospective vice president. She might lack some of the skills of political figures previously tasked with her job – John McCain had power lawyer A.B. Culvahouse lead his vetting in 2008 – but Myers is described as a figure whom Romney holds in high esteem. She was selected precisely because it would mean no leaks, and because she understands Romney and his desire for an experienced vice presidential candidate who won’t overshadow the top of the ticket.

Other broad contours of the process have emerged, too. A New York Times story earlier this week floated the idea that Romney could introduce his choice in July, well before the Republican convention in August. Most presidential nominees traditionally reveal their choice of a running mate shortly before their nominating convention.

Larry Downing / Reuters

GOP candidate Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign event at the Bavarian Inn Lodge in Frankenmuth, Mich.

The Times also included a kicker paragraph that suggested that the Romney campaign might be wary of selecting Chris Christie, since the bombastic New Jersey governor might threaten to overshadow Romney.

One informal Romney adviser suggested that a candidate who’s seen his stock improve is former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, in part because Pawlenty would do anything but overshadow Romney. A runner-up in the 2008 veepstakes, Pawlenty is said to be especially appealing to Ann Romney, who’s built a rapport with Pawlenty’s wife, Mary.

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan are also generally perceived as short-listers for Romney. Each of them, along with Pawlenty, joined Romney for portions of his swing-state bus tour over the last five days.

Officially, most of the Republicans thought to be candidates for the vice presidency have also declined to comment on the process.

"I won't discuss the vice presidential process, out of respect for Gov. Romney," Rubio said Tuesday on CNBC. "I know he is going to make a great choice."

That means that, until the pick is made known, observers are more likely to learn about the process through candidate attrition. Case in point: Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels agreed to become the next president of Purdue University, removing his name from the list of candidates, though he wasn’t ever seen as Romney’s likely running mate.

The few-and-far-between details stand in contrast to the McCain campaign in 2008, which had basically broadcast publicly that the Arizona Republican wished to select his friend, the independent Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, as his running mate. With the exception of McCain’s ultimate selection of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee, much about the Republican’s campaign wasn’t secret.

The Romney campaign seems determined to learn from McCain’s mistakes, maybe even to a fault. The process of vetting a vice presidential candidate can be political in its own right; look no further than a top Rubio advocate’s pushback to BuzzFeed about the Florida senator’s supposed exclusion from Romney’s short list.

But in leaking few details about their search, the Romney campaign also loses out on an opportunity to show they’ve at least made an effort to seek out various candidates whose mere consideration might be needed to placate certain corners of the party.

In particular, few women except for New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte – a freshman lawmaker from New England with only scant federal experience – are thought to be under consideration by Romney.

"I think, unfortunately, Palin poisoned the well on that," said one informal Romney adviser, fretting that any woman selected as VP would draw inevitable comparisons to the former Alaska governor. "I would guess if I were inside the Romney mind that they're worried that any woman chosen will be subjected to a higher level of scrutiny. "

But beyond Rubio, there are virtually no candidates for the vice presidential slot who would represent any diversity on the Republican ticket, a dicey proposition given Romney’s political deficits with women and Latino voters, as well as his opponent this fall: the nation’s first black president.

Mitch Daniels will be named president of Purdue University, as first reported by WISH-TV.

Asked if the news was true, a top Daniels source would not deny reports and told First Read, “It is confirmed by impeccable sources.”

The Purdue Board is meeting Thursday to finalize the offer to Daniels.

Daniels is finishing his second and final term as governor of Indiana and had been considered a potential VP pick for Romney.

NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports that a Daniels aide said officially, "Our office does not have a comment about the report."

The dueling speeches delivered Thursday by President Barack Obama and presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney in Ohio offered a clear preview of the type of campaigns they intend to run against each other. And they made them in defiance of a week of protests from influential voices in their own parties who urged them both to offer voters forward-thinking solutions.

Obama and Romney essentially doubled-down on the strategies they have pursued so far, each waging a campaign meant to define – and disqualify – the other in the eyes of voters. The president’s speech was intended to transform 2012 into a “stark choice,” in the words of his campaign; Romney’s near simultaneous speech was meant to transform the election into a referendum on whether Obama has succeeded in turning the economy around.

Steve Nesius / Reuters

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney addresses supporters during a campaign rally at Con-Air Industries Inc., in Orlando, Fla.

The president’s speech in Cleveland painted Romney in broad strokes, portraying the presumptive GOP nominee as a rehash of the Bush era, “except on steroids.”

"[I]f you want to give the policies of the last decade another try, then you should vote for Mr. Romney," Obama said.

As for Romney, speaking in Cincinnati, he said the president’s talk is “cheap.”

“He’s going to be saying today that he wants four more years. He may have forgotten he talked about a one term proposition if he couldn’t get the economy turned around in three years. But we’re going to hold him to his word,” the former Massachusetts governor said.

But both candidates drew criticism from the media and their opponents for their remarks, accusing both Obama and Romney of offering little in terms of substance, opting instead for broad attacks.

It’s a criticism weathered by both Obama and Romney this week from members of their own party, who worry about the turf over which the campaign will be fought.

In a memo that received wide media coverage, longtime Democratic operatives Stan Greenberg and James Carville urged the president’s campaign to shift toward a message that “focuses on what we will do to make a better future for the middle class.”

“They want to know the plans for making things better in a serious way – not just focused on finishing up the work of the recovery,” the pair wrote for the group Democracy Corps.

Or, as their onetime boss, former President Bill Clinton said on CNN: “I don't think I should have to say bad things about Gov. Romney personally to disagree with him politically.”

It’s a line of criticism not dissimilar to the frustration Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker voiced this week about the way Romney’s run his campaign.

“The way he wins is that, if voters see that 'R,' instead of thinking 'Republican,' they think of 'reformer.' Because here's a candidate that has a clear, bold plan to take on both the economic and fiscal crisis our country faces,” he said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast this week.

Both the Obama and Romney campaigns have long protested that their positions are not just clear, but detailed as well. The president has pushed for Congress to authorize stalled elements of his American Jobs Act, though no serious political observer expects that to advance through a gridlocked Congress.

"You might have thought that it would be a moment when he would acknowledge his policy mistakes and suggest a new course," Romney said of Obama's speech on Friday in New Hampshire. "But no. He promised four more years, of more of the same. Four. More. Very. Long. Years."

"That's really the divide in this race. The president thinks we're on the right track and his policies are working," Romney added. "I believe with all my heart that we can — that we must — do better!"

Romney has his own 59-point economic plan – a strategy that includes a series of tax cuts and regulatory repeals that, he says, would spur job creation. But his central message on the campaign trail doesn’t revolve around any digestible plan of his own.

Walker even suggested to reporters that Romney might develop his own version of Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” plan — not in terms of substance, but in terms of crafting an easily recognizable jobs plan that voters would immediately associate with the candidate.

"The American people I think will rightly demand to know something more than he's not President Obama," Republican Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said on "Fox News Sunday" last weekend. "So, he'd better have an affirmative and constructive message and one of hope."

There’s still plenty of time for Obama and Romney to craft and debut new plans before voters begin tuning into the election more intently this fall.

But the general election, so far, has been defined by complaints about its banality — from its Twitter wars to press releases demanding each candidate disavow what a tenuously-related associate has said. And while some elders in each party seem to believe that a bold policy move would give their candidate a leg up, others seem resigned to the emerging dogfight between Romney and Obama.

"It’s not going to be big on policy," former Republican Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told reporters on Friday, as reported by TPM. "It’s going to be personal. ‘He doesn’t care about people like you, he’s not like us, he’s mean to his dog, he’s married to a well-certified equestrian.'"

The state of the union is "grave," Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels asserted Tuesday evening in the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address.

Daniels painted a dark portrait of the nation's fiscal and economic situation, blaming Obama for the struggling economy, while promoting the Republican agenda as the best alternative to Obama and Democrats.

"On these evenings, Presidents naturally seek to find the sunny side of our national condition," Daniels said. "But when President Obama claims that the state of our union is anything but grave, he must know in his heart that this is not true."

It was a pessimistic contrast to the president's more upbeat message, but Daniels pledged the GOP would offer a more upbeat alternative for voters in the coming election season.

"So 2012 is a year of true opportunity, maybe our last, to restore an America of hope and upward mobility, and greater equality," he said. "An opposition that would earn its way back to leadership must offer not just criticism of failures that anyone can see, but a positive and credible plan to make life better, particularly for those aspiring to make a better life for themselves.  Republicans accept this duty, gratefully."

Daniels, a former Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director, had himself been favored by a number Republicans as a dark horse choice in this year's GOP presidential primary. He's regarded as a darling among fiscal hawks in the party, and was chosen by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to deliver the rejoinder to the president.

Daniels hit on a series of Republican talking points, criticizing the Obama administration for expanding spending and debt, but also for canceling projects like the Keystone XL pipeline, a transnational oil pipeline Republicans had favored as a jobs initiative.

The Indiana governor also laid out several broad prescriptions as a GOP alternative to Obama, calling for tax reforms and repairs to entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security to ensure their solvency.

"The mortal enemies of Social Security and Medicare are those who, in contempt of the plain arithmetic, continue to mislead Americans that we should change nothing," Daniels said.

But Daniels also challenged Republicans to strike a unifying chord, which the conservative governor said was in contrast to Obama, whom he characterized as a divisive leader.

"No feature of the Obama Presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others," he said.

"As a loyal opposition, who put patriotism and national success ahead of party or ideology or any self-interest, we say that anyone who will join us in the cause of growth and solvency is our ally, and our friend," Daniels added, admitting that Republicans had not always been as successful in the past at bring Americans together. "We will speak the language of unity."

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