CF, we’ve been over this before. No freaking way. Fortuño has very little charisma, is pro-life but otherwise rather moderate, and brings literally 0 electoral votes to the table.
If Romney picks a conservative runningmate (who is particularly attractive to Evangelicals), campaigns as a conservative, and points out how dangerous Obama is, he will certainly carry all 22 states that McCain carried, plus IN and the Omaha CD. Romney would also be favored to carry FL, NC, VA and NH, and perhaps NV as well. However, he would still fall short of 270 unless he carries OH (or PA or MI, but those are less likely than OH), and to do that he needs to carry blue-collar conservatives in the state.
It seems to me that the obvious runningmate for Romney would be Sen. Rob Portman of OH, who is an intelligent, experienced, hard-working, charismatic conservative who is popular among blue-collar voters in OH and is a Methodist. He is sufficiently conservative so as to motivate conservative voters not to stay at home but would not scare more moderate suburban Republicans. Quite frankly, Portman would make a far better presidential candidate than Romney or even than the candidate I supported, Rick Santorum, and if he can deliver OH to Romney we should be able to stop Obama from vetoing conservative laws, issuing dangerous executive orders and appointing hundreds of federal judges, including a couple of Justices.
Portman is also young enough to run for president someday. And since OH has Republican John Kasich as governor, a conservative Republican would replace him in the U.S. Senate (maybe Jim Jordan or Ken Blackwell). It makes too much political sense for Portman not to be selected, and it would be a great victory for conservatives in a presidential race that has been extremely disappointing to say the least.
Your post makes a lot of sense to me. Great political analysis of the importance of Ohio in 2012 elections.
Rob Portman is an acceptable running mate, but not a great one. On the plus size is that he helps in Ohio, has a middle-class background (but attended elite private schools as a child), and that conservatives have nothing in particular against him. But conservatives aren’t excited by him, either. Also, he’s tainted by having worked for the Bush Administration and is even more establishment than Romney. Also, remember that he’s only won one statewide election in Ohio so far, so he doesn’t guarantee it. I’d describe him as a middling choice.
The Protestant thing is not a big deal to most voters and I don’t think that a Mormom/Catholic Republican ticket will cause Evangelicals to support Obama.
I agree 100% with AuH2ORepublican. Fortuño is NOT conservative and is NOT acceptable. If the ticket is Romney/Fortuño, I'm voting third party (and since I'm from Illinois, spare me the "you'll cause Obama to win if you do that" argument). I will NOT support two dopes who lent their support to Obamacare at the time it was passed.
I'm sick of hearing the birther conspiricies about how you're not a "natural born citizen" unless both were parents were born American citizens, but with Fortuño the more important point is he doesn't even govern a state but a U.S. territory. He wouldn't help Romney win any more votes (areas of the U.S. mainland with large Puerto Rican populations, like NYC, would still vote RAT) and I would seriously question Romney's sanity if that's the guy he wants to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. Saying it's OK because he's was born a U.S. citizen is like David Cameron tapping the Premier of Bermuda to be Deputy Prime Minister of the U.K. and shrugging off the fact she lives on the other side of the globe by pointing out she was born a British citizen and her head of state is Elizabeth II. While she's "british" on paper that argument won't fly.
In Fortuño's case, there are numerous Hispanic Republicans (ESPECIALLY after the 2010 election) that are more conservative than him and have won elections in the U.S. mainland. Thus there's no reason to even put him on a short list of veep choices.
I'm not saying no to Fortuño, I'm saying HELL NO.