Do All Signs Point to Portman?
Portman’s bill to end the threat of government shutdowns in the event of a budget impasse paints a stark contrast with Congress of the 1990s, where Newt Gingrich’s House welcomed public budget face-offs with looming shutdown threats.
But it also paints a picture of a safe — even conflict-averse — running mate for Romney, should he decided on the senator.
Byron York wrote today that Portman fits with Romney’s penchant for caution, unflashy style, desire for experience, and belief that the veep shouldn’t headline the ticket. “Portman has experience as a representative, a senator, and a top official in the executive branch; he is an entirely plausible president should something happen to a President Romney,” York said.
Over at NBC News, Chuck Todd and Co. officially named the final three as Portman, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.): “Portman would be the insider, someone who knows the ways of Washington and who could help govern starting on Day 1.”
At Investor’s Business Daily, David Hogberg noted that the Wikipedia tea leaves read in Portman’s favor. Checking the pages of the top VP contenders, the only entry that has recently undergone substantial editing is the Ohio senator’s.
“Yesterday, when his page was copied into a Word file, it had 15 pages, 3,787 words, and 21,499 characters. As of this writing, it has 13 pages, 3,210 words, and 18,022 characters,” Hogberg wrote. “…By the looks of it, two main portions have been removed from the page, a list of bills that Portman has sponsored and the roles he played in negotiating trade agreements with Peru, Colombia and Ecuador.”
That includes removal of the not-super-presidential football coin and Jack Nicklaus bills.
In just a few hours today, Portman’s InTrade chances went from nearly 33 percent to 38 percent. Pawlenty is running at 15 percent as of this writing.
The domain name RomneyPawlenty.com was created days after Election Day in 2008, was updated on April 17, and expires Nov. 13, according to WHOIS. RomneyPortman2012.com was created last October and was updated on April 18. RomneyPortman.com was created in March 2009, was updated last September, and expires next March. All domain names are unavailable.
For his part, Portman has demurred as much as the next short-lister on his VP odds.
“I’ve spent a lot of time around the state, I’m sharing the campaign for Gov. Romney here,” Portman said Tuesday in Ohio, as reported by Yahoo News. “I’m going to work my heart out for him no matter what. And I really believe that is what it comes down to.”
Pawlenty is also playing every bit the loyalist, doing events in New Hampshire this weekend for Romney, who is planning a weekend bus tour.
Pawlenty was asked at today’s opening of a campaign office in Jackson, Mich., if he would return there when he was vice president.
“We’ll know soon enough,” Pawlenty quipped.
But when elaborating on the rising conservative stars of the future, Portman made the tail end of Pawlenty’s long list.
“You’ve got this tremendous new governor in Nevada Brian Sandoval,” Pawlenty said. “If you haven’t heard of him, you will. He’s terrific. Susanna Martinez in New Mexico, the first Hispanic Republican woman governor in the history of the country. Bobby Jindal in Louisiana, tremendous reformer, outstanding governor and leader. Marco Rubio, the rising star and senator from Florida. Then you go up to South Carolina, you’ve got Nikki Haley the governor of South Carolina, Bob McDonnell in Virginia, Chris Christie in New Jersey, Rob Portman and Paul Ryan, the budget chairman. And many others. David Petreaus.”
Oh, please, no. A rich white guy who seems to be about as conservative/ideological as your typical free-range beef steer. Mitt’s going to throw this all away, isn’t he?
G-d, I miss Andrew Breitbart.
…but he will/should deliver Ohio. He sounds even less exciting than Pawlenty. Is that possible?
Wait, we want to set a Guiness World Record for blandness, right? Well we haven’t heard a rumble from JON HUNTSMAN in ages, have we?
Let’s hear it for Huntsman. We CAN be blander!!!!
It’s either Rubio or re-elect Obama. I can’t imagine what Romney is thinking.
Bingo. Any other choice dooms us to the dissipation of American and Imperial Rule by edict.
Heaven save save.
When I think of plain oatmeal or Cream of Wheat, I think of Pawlenty and Portman. When I think of Rubio, I think of spicy, hot enchilladas and a warm, tropical breeze. I’d prefer the enchilladas with the breeze on the side.
If it’s Rubio, I’m leaving the reservation. His siding with the Muslim Brotherhood in attacking Michele Bachman was the last straw. On foreign policy and islam, Rubio is a dangerous idiot.
Feral, I’m not leaving the reservation no matter who he picks. The worse of these guys is better than what we have in there now, and we can elect some actual conservatives to Congress to keep their feet to the fire. I’m only worried that Portman-T Paw-anyone other than Rubio will lose the election. They have the charisma of a 2 x 4.
Well JJ, if it’s Rubio, I am leaving the Reservation. Now that doesn’t mean I won’t come back Tuesday morning on Nov 6 after having a couple of shots of firewater. I would be really surprised if Romney picked Rubio though – or Petraeus or Rice.
That be me.
I agree! Rubio or bust! Allen West would love it, but they see him as too bold (which is just dumb)! P.S Chuck Todd reports? Really? The left is just trying to plant these crazy V.P. choices to make the public despise Romney period!!
Allen West and Marco Rubio are 180 degrees apart (3200 mils out for you artillery types) when it comes to Islam. West sided with Michele Bachmann agaist the Muslim Brotherhood, while Rubio sided with the Muslim Brotherhood and attack Michele Bachmann. West can’t very well go directly after Rubio as he is a senator from West’s own state, but I am pretty sure he thinks Rubio is a putz.
Feral, I’ll be joining you for firewater and then voting for the Mormon
I think you spelled Moron wrong. And it will be something stronger than fire water. Probably fire and brimstone water. Bad taste and horrible smell. OTOH compared to Comrade ∅….
I lived among Mormons for 6 months and there are no better, overall, than them. And I say this as, well let’s just say I’m the same religion as Mark Twain.
So, you’d rather vote for a Communist than vote for a Mormon. Or you would rather stay home and not vote for anyone, which would still be a vote for the Communist. I would suggest that you rethink your options. So far, Obama’s taken over our healthcare (1/6th of our economy) and the financial sector through Dodd-Frank. Give him four more years and there won’t BE a United States. At this point, I’d vote for Daffy Duck just so long as he wasn’t a Commie.
I don’t care if he’s a Mormon. I lived in Salt Lake for over 3 years, and it’s my 3rd or 4th choice of a place to live in this country. (1st choice if I have to live in a city!) The people there are a large part of my reasons for that.
I do care that he governed somewhere to the left of Ted Kennedy, and remains an ardent homosexual activist.
No more lesser of two evils.
No more.
Yes, I know what that means.
No more.
If he picks an actual conservative with strong moral values, I may punch the ticket for his running mate, as I did for Sarah Palin and Whatsisname.
If he picks another RINO, I’ll write in someone else.
No more.
Rubio comes across as other worldly. A little different.
Maybe it is because of his religious bent.
It might also be a little strange for Mitt and his family to partner up with a Catholic to Mormon back to Catholic kind of guy.
Yes, let’s pick the guy who oversaw the Bush budgets that got the GOP thrown out on their rears.
No No No No No – Got to be Rubio, Jindal or Ryan.
Think CONSERVATIVE, or as close to it as we can get. Sheesh.
OK as Conservative as you can get.
Rand Paul – Small Government and he means it.
Luis Fortuno, the Republican Governor of Puerto Rico, is better choice than any of them. A successful conservative executive who would energize a lot of people outside the base.
If it’s Portman, kiss it goodbye, Mitt. You simply cannot depress or disempower us any further. We’re dying here, man.
Mit Mit Mit Mit ……. Mit,
You tempt me to just throw in the towel. To hell with it all. If you are the best the pubbies can come up with ( you and Boner and all those old-white-go-along-to-get-along-porkers in DC ) then just screw it. Maybe Texas and Oklahoma will secede. THAT would give me hope.
Damn your elitist hide.
It’s not going to make a damn bit of difference who he picks if he’s going to run a McCain style campaign.
You got that right.
If McCain’s people hadn’t muzzled Palin, we probably wouldn’t be having this discussion.
This miserable bunch of wet Republican Rinos are driving me to distraction. If this continues much longer they surely must go the way of the Whigs ? Romney was ruthless against his Republican Primary opponents, yet acts like a super wimp up against the Marxist! If it’s Portman , count me out.
If he really can deliver Ohio it’s probably worth it. Ohioans have a halfway decent economy and Obama is getting some undeserved credit there. Romney camp really needs the state.
mitt wins or loses it in ohio.
it is polling far worse than it should, as they have experienced a massive reduction in unemployment.
10.6% to 7.2%…
reagan was running ‘morning in america’ commercials when he went from 10.8% to 7.4%.
portman isn’t my first choice, or even fifth, but no one else in ohio can play veep like he can, for a must win state.
if romney needs rubio to win florida, then he has already lost in all the other states that matter.
ryan’s state has never been kind to the gop, and the electoral votes are meager compared to ohio.
Please. No more Senators, on either side of the ticket. If there are no Governors ready for promotion, choose a former Cabinet member or something. Legislators make LOUSY Executives.
Comment above asked for a sitting Governor or Cabinet official. Would youall settle for a sitting Governor with a terrific record and an ex-sub cabinet official? The case against the scum in the White House can and should include Obamacare and corruption. Romneycare is cover for the former, but an expert on health care can cleanse that one. Let us not forget Malkin’s indictment in “Culture of Corruption”. So tell me a better qualified VP candidate than Bobby Jindal.
Please, god – no. Not another establishment Repub. Give us someone to be enthusiastic about, someone with a non-standard Pubbie background and life story. Not another go-along to get-along.
I think I will go and get another drink… It’s going to be a long two months. I’d better take it easy, though. My liver will probably rebel before November.
Save one for me.
Portman is infinitely better than David “Muslim Hearts and Minds/Holy Qur’an” Petraeus, Condi “Muslims are Oppressed like Blacks” Rice and Marco “Libyan Rebel Heroes/Muslim Brotherhood” Rubio.
It fits. He’s the blandest option of any of them.
This campaign is playing out exactly as everyone knew it would.
You better pray that every adult over 50 in the country votes because Romney sure as hell isn’t going to get himself elected. He makes McCain look like a firecracker.
Remmber Death Star Romney? That was anti-conservative Death Star Romney. Now that he has an opponent loved by the media, the death star has been relaced with a cap pistol…without the caps.
Exactly as predicted by many of us.
“Romney sure as hell isn’t going to get himself elected”
I think it has been crystal clear for the past two years that whoever the nominee would be, it would be up to US to get him elected.
Exactly correct. And if you ever needed a better reason to kick the slow-moving objects at the heart of the Stupid Party, there it is. The decisive mass of Independents, primarily occupying the center — no, not RINOs in any way — plus many like me, well to the right, are in the main capable of sucking it all up and voting for Mr. Marionette, to prevent the greater evil. But the price the GOP will pay afterwards will be astronomical — IMO, terminal. Couldn’t happen to a nastier bunch.
Romney hasn’t changed, he is what he’s always been.
The GOP is struggling against the worst and most dangerous president in history, a big fat target.
If you’re a Republican grandee, what part of this is hard to understand?
I just ‘talked’ with George S. Patton and this is what he said to pass on.
Obama’s campaign strategy is inadequate to maintain him in a serious action such as Mitt Romney and Rob Portman and the Tea Party will put to him. He has corruption in the coop, hate on the hoof, taqiyya on the tongue and bats in the belfry — that’s his campaign strategy. He can probably maintain himself in the type of fighting Mitt Romney and the Tea Party will give him in Mexifornia and a few states on the North East front. After that it will make no difference how many thousands of dead he has voting for him early and often, and if Americans want America and the Presidency back, Mitt Romney and Rob Portman and the Tea Party will give it to them.
George S. Patton also said he didn’t want to hear any defeatism from the troops or else!
Hold on to your hats! It’s another four years of the mobster and his gang from Chicago! With a little help from his friends in the Repoop-blican party! Eight years Dems, eight years Repoops. Obama is trying his best to win. Romney is trying his best to lose!
A Romney/Portman ticket reminds me of the Clinton/Gore ticket, two young attractive, political goofs, seeking power, but with no solid principles to guide them. I live in Ohio and would be far less energized if Portman were selected. How about Scott Walker, Paul Ryan. Or Newt. It would be good to have at least one person on the ticket willing to actually fight for the cause, and able to articulate conservative ideas. Romney appears to have decided he can sleepwalk through the campaign.
Calm down everyone. Rob Portman is not yet the VP choice (although I don’t think he’s a bad one). He may only be a willing decoy. We’ve been surprised by VP choices at national conventions before (did anyone think Barack Obama would pick Joe Biden? I mean, JOE BIDEN?).
We have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to VP picks this time around, but in the end, VP is just VP. Any one of those on the short list (or the long list) would be excellent from our point of view, but a complete bullseye target for the Obama campaign and their lapdog MSM. Latino choices like Rubio, West, or Martinez would be set up for the nastiest, most racially divisive campaign in history (remember Sarah Palin, and she was just a white woman?) Chris Christie would be a great choice, I think, but there again he is the last acceptable white American prejudice, other than white Southerners: fat, ergo premature death, heart disease, incipient diabetes, therefore “not safe to take over just in case”, whatever the Democratic Assassination Team can come up with.
A non-controversial candidate (such as Portman) may be the best chance Romney has, because there’s bound to be very little the Obama campaign can hang on him. We are facing probably the ugliest presidential campaign of the last 100 years, and it just may be to our advantage not to give the Obama campaign any extra knives.
That said, as I said, we may be surprised by the RNC convention.
That said, I wish Romney would pick Bobby Jindal, which would shock everybody and bring into focus the Asian-American community, which is the fastest growing and the most ignored.
Jindal’s weak and putzy response to Obama’s 2009 state of the union address will be long remembered. His national debut was seen by many as his epitaph. You really base your decisions on skin color?
http://tv.spreadit.org/bobby-jindal-response-to-obama-state-of-the-union-video/
In his book “Crises and leadership, Jindal freely admits he blew the response to the SOTU speech. He also has learned from that incident. Hereaftter he will be his own man, speaking his mind, rather than the mouthpiece he was to be on that occasion. Read that book. It will change your impression of him. Check out the ratings of Louisiana since he took charge. His resume, Under Secretary of HHS, College Prez, Congressman, Governor, is unmatched. Did he run a business? We have one of those “presumeably” on the ticket. Remember Ross Perot went nowhere promising to run the country like a business. Its not a winning message. Bobbt can bring balance and an understanding of how things work in DC, for which Mitt will have a steep learning curve ahead.
Sure, if you like Sharia.
Let’s see here…. Likes Christie, likes the “go bland or go home, don’t upset anyone!” approach….
Yep. Establishment lackey.
the nomination of Portman will electrify!, Portman’s immediate family members.
Now that raht thar was funny!
Who should Romney pick as his running mate? THE MAN FROM OHIO! He is a solid and true conservative that has a well-earned record of accomplishment and speaks on the stump with conviction and passion in a truly no-holds-barred fashion. A man with quick mind and a conservative fire-in-the-belly presence. He will hand Joe Biden his head on a plate and won’t back down for an instant from The Punk from Chicago. He will energize the campaign and lean on Mitt to do likewise. The NEA teachers hate his guts. What better recommendation could exist? YES!……Governor John Kasich is the right pick! Who the hell is Rob Portman?
Portman’s a good way to lose. Nobody knows who he is, but when you look, it turns out he’s another Ivy League, puppy mill pedigree type. Dartmouth. The Left is drooling at the opportunity to paint both candidates with the same out-of-touch “lovey, bring me my champagne” country clubber representation.
The voters will give Obama a second chance before they elect two rich, elite and privileged white men. They’re madder than hell but they’re not going to go that far.
We warned you elites on McCain and you didn’t listen. We’ll come with a wrecking ball and dismantle what remains of the blue blood RNC if you blow it this time… that is, if there’s anything left of another four years of Obama.
“The Global Conservation Act has Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) as co-sponsors. Portman, Snowe, Udall and Whitehouse are co-chairs of the Senate International Conservation Caucus.”
This bill and list of co-sponsors tells us all we need to know about Portman, he is no conservative, this is a progressive bill to expand government and turn over more power to the international community. No thank you, we all know this is the establishment pick.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.
Barack Obama here. Everything including your fighting against your own nominee is going according to my grand plan. America is dying. I am the reason. America is what is wrong with the world. You have to suffer. I can not believe you ever even thought I was an American. No, I am not. I am a world citizen. Borders are illegal in my eyes. Plus, you stole this land anyway and built it on the backs of Black men like me. You will not have your guns when I am done with you. You won’t have your Bibles either. You won’t even have a nation. I have not even begun to transform you. You will change. I will make you. Feel free to vote for me or just stay home. I hate you. I hate your children. I hate your parents for having you. See you in November–suckers–losers. I am Barack Obama and I will have at least four more years. More likely about 40 more years.
“Romney/Portman ticket reminds me of the Clinton/Gore ticket, two young attractive, political goofs, seeking power, but with no solid principles to guide them.”
Best quote of the batch.
I don’t know Portman but he sure seems like a blueblood. Romney has no guiding principles that I can discern but I guess it was always hoped that the ticket would develop some. This proposed ticket does not achieve that. Romney needs to find someone who can defend capitalism! That is the battleground in this campaign.
Pot legalization is going to kill Romney in Colorado. It will destroy the Republicans in 2016. How stupid can Republicans get? Very.
http://classicalvalues.com/2012/08/the-democrats-have-a-comeback-plan/
Per RealClearPolitics, CBS/NYT (yes, you read that right) has Romney up 5 points in Colorado, so I think the reports of his death there are … … premature.
That poll appears to be an outlier.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/co/colorado_romney_vs_obama-2023.html
A state that favors pot legalization by 61% going for a Mormon? Don’t make no sense. But I will grant you not much does in America these days.
I despair. It seems Mitt may just bland his way into oblivion. For the love of God, pick somebody with balls enough to shake things up, somebody who makes people want to tune in to campaign events just to see the sparks fly, somebody who will throw political correctness to the wind, somebody who articulates conservative economics without sounding apologetic, somebody who will proclaim American greatness utterly without guile or calculation, somebody who can credibly shred the welfare deadbeat mentality sinking this country without being called racist, somebody… Well, you can see where I’m going here. I want Allen West. I know, I know. It’s not likely, but it would be like a shot of political adrenaline for millions of people out there who want to pull the lever for something more than bland.
Portman? – please insert sound of crickets here.
Would last one standing in what used to be USA, please turn out the lights.
I have the feeling Romney may nix Rubio because he lacks experience, even though he would bring good things to the ticket. Portman might deliver Ohio, but I dont like him that well because he is boring, and has too many ties to Bush. Pawlenti is as boring as Pawlenti, and wont deliver an important state.
Ryan could be good though. He has enough experience, but without too many ties to Bush, and on budgetary and fiscal matters, he is both a real conservative, and he knows how to speak about them in a way people can understand. The dems are going to try and tie Romney to the Ryan plan and attack it anyway, but Ryan knows how to defend against those attacks credibly, and can really attack Obama on budgetary and economic matters, which is the main issue of this election. And he might help deliver Wisconsin, which because of Gov Walker is winnable for repubs.
“[I]t also paints a picture of a safe — even conflict-averse — running mate for Romney…”
In 1920, President Warren G Harding gave a famous speech in which he pleaded for a “return to normalcy.”
“There isn’t anything the matter with world civilization, except that humanity is viewing it through a vision impaired in a cataclysmal war. Poise has been disturbed, and nerves have been racked, and fever has rendered men irrational; sometimes there have been draughts upon the dangerous cup of barbarity, and men have wandered far from safe paths, but the human procession still marches in the right direction.
“America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality.”
I think Mitt Romney views Rob Portman as being a normal guy–dispassionate, self-effacing and solid, in short everything Obama is not.
Portman is the logical choice for a running mate but is politics amenable to logic?
Is the history of picking a VP so he will carry his own state valid? I thought this bet was usually a bad one or didn’t make any difference in the case of ‘non-swing state’?
Let’s hope it’s not Portman, since he’s an Agenda 21 global guy. There’s some articles at RedState on ‘sustainable’ growth!
Romney’s campaign since early in the primaries was to stay out of the limelight and bore to the finish line. It has worked so far. Portman is the man to help that along.
I don’t like any of it, but there it is.
The author offers no new insight that’s already been out there on why she thinks it’s Portman and just seems to be throwing her bet down on the table. I don’t think Mitt is that dumb to bring on a former Bush guy who’s a first term senator to boot. The moonbats are saying that Urkel and the gang would just love to go up against a Ryan VP choice……which means that is probably who they fear the most. There are various ways for Romney to get 270 even without Ohio, but if it takes a junior senator to get you that state, Portman should run for Gov. when Kasich leaves if he’s that popular. Anyway…my five star monster picks, just released, are down to Pawlenty and Ryan. Hoping for Ryan, but expecting Pawlenty just because he’s the safe one that any guy like Mitt would let take his sister to the prom.
Still waiting for any negative on Jindal other than he made one lousy speech.