Posted on 05/06/2012 9:42:40 AM PDT by Clintonfatigued
Adding Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) to the top of the Romney ticket won't be enough to seal the key battleground state of Ohio for the GOP, says a former Democratic governor of the Buckeye state.
Portman's credentials in his home state "would not guarantee" Ohio goes Republican this November, former Gov.Ted Strickland said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.
Strickland said Portman "doesn't have the standing" in the state needed to make a difference in the general election.
That said, "no candidate . . . can take Ohio for granted," Strickland added.
Portman, along with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is the focus of speculation as a potential running mate for the Romney ticket.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Well, I don’t know whether this is sour grapes or if it’s an honest opinion? In any event, Portman would help in Ohio but wouldn’t guarantee it.
LOL Ted Strickland know a little about politics, very damn little!
I think there’s something to the chatter about Rick Snyder getting the slot. The Michigan delegation has already gotten hotel room assignments that traditionally go to the state of the VP choice. Snyder is at least as liberal as Romney but can claim a record of success by proxy.
I never actually heard of him before unless I caught his name on a list of senators.
Does someone out there imagine that a completely unknown person with no Conservative credentials is going to pull in the Conservative vote to Romney?
They are still desperate ~ something they (meaning the professional Mitbotts) should have thought about at the beginning of the primary season this year.
Really, all other concerns about Romney aside, he has a remarkably unprepared or illprepared team backing him. Where did these guys go to school? Was it Regent's, or Oral Roberts, or maybe Bob Jones? (kind of makes you wonder who runs this campaign)
God I hope not. Snyder is a real flake who thinks Ann Arbor’s govt is a model for the rest of the state. He has dismal approval rates in the state and would bring nothing to the ticket. Maybe that is what Mitt wants?
Things have improved in Michigan in spite of Snyder. Even with a whole herd of RINOs in the legislature they’ve sent some good bills to his desk which he had little choice but to sign.
I’m still pissed off about seeing him whining about Santorum’s appeal to union members when he himself was nominated by them. Despite the “dirty trick” Santorum played, Snyder still doesn’t want to close the primary.
Portman has been vetted twice, as U.S. trade representative in 2005 and Office of Management and Budget director in 2006. He’ll be good as a Romney running mate, but is not as conservative as I’d like. But, who is? The media destroyed the good guys.
Ted Strickland is a ‘Rat...perhaps obvious from the fact that he was on CNN. He was defeated by John Kasich for governor.
Ted Strickland is “smart as a goose”.
< snip > Ted Strickland, “My friends, surely we are as smart as the goose.” < /snip >
Not only am I an Ohioan, but Sen Portman is my former congressman from our rural area of south Ohio. He was a very good, dutiful, conservative voting congressman the entire while he served our 2d district. At that time, he was NOT a name commodity in Ohio.
His broader name recognition came about due to his connection with Pres Bush who raised him to the OMB and provided him with some needed recognition.
This is absolutely no negative intended toward Sen Portman, who I believe is a decent conservative man. I simply don’t think he is a banner in Ohio around which many clamor to rally. I think he’s well-liked, and I definitely think he’s much more competent than Romney himself.
In fact, if we could get Romney to resign and run Portman, then I’d be ok with the ticket finally.
However, Strickland is definitely a liberal partisan, so his words must be taken with that in account. He OVERSELLS his position. It’s not that Sen Portman would have “little” effect in Ohio. It is that Sen Portman is not some kind of beacon politician that is widely known, followed, and admired.
That is NOT to say that he would not still be a very good selection. Any favorite son on a ticket always brings state pride into the equation, so I would bet that it would garner a few more Ohio votes having him there.
However, I am not a Romney supporter for reasons of principle, and I would not support Romney no matter who his running mate, even if a favorite son, even if my former congressman.
There is no doubt that Romney MUST have BOTH Ohio and Florida to win. If he loses either, then he loses the election the way I count the numbers.
Just to be honest, Rubio would be the better selection for the same reasons in Florida that Portman would be a good selection in Ohio. Additionally, Rubio has great name recognition nationally. Most importantly, Rubio is an Hispanic American, and he would mitigate that Hispanic tendency to select Obama.
That would affect many states and not just Florida. So, with Rubio you get two for the price of one. Again, though, he’s a much better candidate than Romney himself, so Romney would drag Rubio down.
And a Romney loss would injure Rubio for decades. Portman, on the other hand, would never have been a presidential candidate in the first place. Rubio who has real presidential prospects should fight like heck not to be paired with Romney’s losing effort. Portman, on the other hand, would find it helpful and a stepping stone to a level he would otherwise never had attained. Additionally, as we have seen, Senators running for the presidency do NOT lose their senate seats if they lose. Isn’t that right, Sen McCain/Lieberman/Kerry?
Huh!??
That was ROMNEY who destroyed the good guys. The media was complicit and in the tank for him, but don't give Mitt a pass on his actual record of lying about conservatives, pretending to be a conservative, lying about his grossly social liberal record, and then nit-picking fine details in the records of those who had actually been conservative.
Newt sat on a couch with Pelose, but Mitt endorsed global warming, carbon credits, the whole thing.
I am not a Romney supporter. I am aware of the antics he pulled, but he was abetted by the media, who held the power. Cain or Newt could have got something done, but the media pounced on them, as well as Romney, particularly spending millions in Florida to bash Newt. I find it disgusting that more than 50% of republicans are not in favor of Romney, but he keeps going as though he is America's choice.
If Romney can’t find his Palin........let’s just say he’ll make Walter “Fritz” Mondale’s campaign look brilliant.
This election is his to lose.....and for the party pols in the Marxist Disneyland on the Potomac...that’s just fine.
The Republican will win Ohio. In 2010, OH elected a new U.S. senator and governor, and both of them are Republicans. In that year, OH elected four new congressmen, and all of them are Republicans.
The “top” of the Romney ticket?
Never trust what a rat says. He must have political purposes, whatever they are.
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