Ohio has always ranked as one of the biggest prizes in American presidential history. While the Buckeye State continually battles with Virginia in an endless argument over which of them produced more presidents, six presidents -- William Henry Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, William McKinley, William Howard Taft and Warren G. Harding -- were based there while two presidents born there -- Ulysses S. Grant and Benjamin Harrison -- rose to power from other states.
But, despite the large number of presidents, Ohio has not produced any vice presidents. That could change after this election cycle as speculation continues to grow that U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, could end up as Mitt Romneys running mate on the Republican ticket.
On a number of levels, Portman helps balance the ticket for Romney. Unlike the former Massachusetts governor, Portman has solid experience on the federal level serving in the U.S. House for 12 years before serving President George W. Bush as U.S. trade representative and director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Despite his decades in politics, Portman is known for playing up his roots, noting that he worked for his father, a small-business man who ran a forklift company.
Portman could help Romney carry his home state which remains pivotal and, based on recent polls, up for grabs in November. Only twice in the last century has Ohio backed the losing presidential candidate -- in 1960 when Richard Nixon carried the state over John F. Kennedy and in 1944 when Republican vice presidential nominee John Bricker, the popular governor of Ohio who would later serve in the U.S. Senate, helped propel Thomas Dewey over Franklin Roosevelt in the Buckeye State. With 18 Electoral College votes, Ohio remains important. On paper, Portman should help Romney in Ohio. He took 57 percent when he ran for the Senate in 2010 while his Democrat opponent garnered less than 40 percent.
Still, Portman has his weaknesses as a vice presidential candidate. Portman offered key support in the U.S. House to pass the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA) -- something populist conservatives have not forgotten. With Romney positioning himself as a Washington outsider, Portman could undermine that message with his decades in the Beltway. Portman is also a very safe and unsurprising choice -- not exactly one to galvanize and fire up voters.
Portman certainly filled one of the traditional roles of the running mate this week when he went on the attack on Romneys behalf.
With President Barack Obama hitting the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania this week, the team behind Romney sent out Portman and U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to bash the president.
This week, President Obama will visit our states as he campaigns for re-election. We welcome him, and we hope he takes time to learn about how the private sector is actually doing and about the challenges facing our constituents in Ohio and Pennsylvania, the senators wrote in a memo released by the Romney team. What he will no doubt hear from them is a sense of overwhelming frustration. Voters want an explanation: Why did he fail to live up to the many promises he made to them in his last campaign and during his time in office?
As both a candidate and newly-inaugurated president, President Obama outlined a number of specific, quantifiable promises. He said he intended to be judged by these promises, and urged voters to hold him accountable, they continued. In February 2009, he declared of improving the economy, If I dont have this done in three years, then theres going to be a one-term proposition. When the president pushed his trillion-dollar stimulus bill, he and his team promised it would reduce the unemployment rate to around 5.6 percent by today. Of course, in reality, weve endured an unemployment rate above 8 percent for 40 straight months -- the worst employment numbers in 30 years and a clear policy failure.
Today, the unemployment rate is 8.2 percent, 2.6 percentage points higher than promised. What would it mean if he had delivered on that promise: 8.4 million more Americans would have jobs, the senators insisted. This is a promise gap: a clear and demonstrable difference between what the president promised to voters and what he actually delivered. He made a promise on nearly every critical issue of the day -- employment, energy, health-care, housing, and the deficit -- that our lives would be better off today if his policies were enacted. By his own standards, he has fallen far short on each and every issue. And by his own admission, such shortcomings are cause for Americans to make his presidency a one-term proposition.
With Portman having attended an event with Romney and big-name Republican leaders and donors -- including other possible vice presidential hopefuls -- in Utah earlier this month, the junior senator from Ohio appears to be in the running for the prize. Since it appears he would help Romney in a key state, Portman has to be put in the first tier of possibilities to wind up on the ticket.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
