Now, I'm guessing Romney's VP pick is going to be Portman mainly because it'll be hard to beat Obama without taking Ohio and, even though the record on VPs delivering states is weak, Portman is popular enough in Ohio to possibly be a difference maker. Certainly Portman satisfies the 'contra Palin' imperative people seem to think is vital.
But I think people are misunderstanding the 'Palin factor'. In an age where virtually everything is influenced by the sensuality, the emotive appeal, the impressionistic nature of mass media, a 'wow' factor that feeds the media's hunger for seductive narratives and gloss should not be underestimated. People seem to be forgetting that Palin's 'wow factor' dramatically changed the dynamics of the election in 2008 in favor of McCain - it fell apart of course because Palin was all hat and no cattle and lacked the substance to deliver on the promise - but what if that hadn't been the case?
No doubt it's gonna be Portman - but my outside money is on Kelly Ayotte - if I was on Romney's VP search team I would seriously be vetting Senator Ayotte - she doesn't have Palin's 'wow factor' when it comes to cult of personality politics, but just being a woman is narrative enough for the media to feast on - she's smart and unlike Palin can answer complex policy questions as if she actually understood the question, looks pleasing enough on TV [sounds bit sexist but, sorry, matters], has a Lt-Col in the airforce for a husband and has about as much gov't experience as Obama had when he became president so can't be attacked as 'not ready to serve'.
Sure, Christie can also bring media centric 'wow' to a ticket - and, quite frankly, just for pure entertainment sake, I hope he's the choice - but there's two big problems with Christie [aside from fact he may have no interest in a second fiddle job]: one, hard to predict how his confrontational nature will play over time on the national stage - I personally think people are hungry for that kind of straight shooter bravado, but who knows; and then, would his big personality overshadow Romney? So I tend not to see Christie as a likely option if one chooses to view the 'Palin factor' in the somewhat positive counterfactual way I've framed it.
[hey, what about Paul Ryan? Well, sure, he's a favorite of mine but I'm only talking about choices with media appeal here - and sure, one could argue only Christie and Rubio really bring media-centric heft with them, that just the idea of a woman being a heart beat away is no longer a big enough deal to drive media coverage - all true - but my point is merely that I think it'd be a mistake to ignore the albiet superficial reality of 'excitement' just because you're haunted by the Palin fiasco - and it is a reality and will increasingly be so - that may say something disquieting about our culture and politics but ignoring that reality will mean abdicating governance of the most important country in the world to people who think like Obama, and look what that type has done to Europe - hell, just look at California - Obama needs to be beaten - I can't take four more years of George Clooney sauntering smugly into the White House every god damn week]
[and let's not forget that thanks to idiots like Santorum and Limbaugh the GOP now has a serious problem with women - Romney's trailing Obama with women by something like 20% - sure, given that, putting a woman on the ticket could look like a gimmick, but that's the great thing about Ayotte, there's nothing about her that smacks of gimmick - and I just love the fact her husband was an officer in the airforce, although don't know if he saw combat - be really nice if he flew F-15s in the Gulf War - regardless, lot of voter appeal in being a military wife. I'm wondering if Romney mentioned her as a possibility way back in the fall of 2011 so that she wouldn't look like a mere gimmick]
