If Romney chooses a fellow white Anglo-Saxon male as his running mate, he might as well choose Dan Quayle, wherever he may be, and be done with the whole presidential race.
This is 2012. Minorities and women have made enormous political strides during the past few decades. Popular, charismatic Republican governors and Senators of many ethnic backgrounds dot the landscape. And Mitt Romney already has the white Anglo-Saxon male vote completely sewn up.
Marco Rubio, an Hispanic-American from the must-win state of Florida, is standing like a pot of 24-carat political gold just waiting to be picked up by Romney for a certain presidential victory, as Senator Rubio would add Florida to Romney’s win column and pick up enough Hispanic-American votes to put the ticket well over the top.
Will Romney choose Rubio, or spend the rest of his life regretting he didn’t, starting on the day he chooses the terminally bland Senator Whitebread for VP and wonders why the air suddenly seems to have gone out of his campaign?
Identity politics is politics of division and is not a conservative value. And if Romney’s smart about this, he won’t even think about picking Rubio for numerous reasons.