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You know, I’m really beginning to enjoy the mini-campaign underway to puff Ohio Sen. Rob Portman into something other than a boring Beltway conservative lifer who’s more or less the default-drive Veep option. Last week we had the exciting news that in the barrios of America, Hispanic voters are practically chanting his name, so inoffensive are his views about immigration (and he learned Spanish in college!).
Now we learn that this mild-mannered party hack has been auditioning as an attack dog—one of those time-honored roles for a Veep. Jonathan Karl of ABC has the story, as spun to him by Portman’s staff:
Just over the past week, the normally soft-spoken Portman has issued a series of blistering - for him anyway - attacks on Barack Obama.
By today’s standards, these attacks are actually fairly tame (nothing compared to what Newt Gingrich has said about Romney, for example), but the tough new tone shows Portman is not afraid to play the traditional attack-dog role of a vice presidential candidate.
Here’s a rundown of what we’ve heard from Portman of just the last week:
- In an interview with Bret Baier on Fox News, Portman turned a question about his lack of “sizzle” into a slam on Obama. “America made a decision in 2008 to go with a president who did have sizzle. And look, he was kind of a celebrity. He also had a very compelling message which was, remember this, ‘I’m going to bring people together to solve problems.’ Didn’t happen. And it didn’t happen because he didn’t have the experience, he didn’t have the record, he didn’t have the policies to do it.”
- A few days later, Portman accused the President of offering only “lofty rhetoric and poll-tested platitudes” when he visited Ohio. “Instead of changing course, President Obama wants to double down with more job-killing taxes, higher spending, dangerous levels of debt, and more burdensome regulations from Washington.”
- When the disappointing jobs report came out on Friday, Portman blamed the President for an economy that has 5 million fewer jobs than before the recession, saying “Unfortunately, time and time again, the Obama administration chooses politics over policy and style over substance.”
I’ll pause for a moment to let your heart stop racing.
The piece de resistance is an op-ed Portman ran on the Fox News site over the weekend. Here’s a tasty sample of the rawest red meat:
American families are worried. Many are hurting. Most of our fellow citizens feel that America is on the wrong track. As parents we are concerned that the country we leave for our children and grandchildren won’t be as prosperous or secure as the one we inherited. Meanwhile, the Obama administration seems out of ideas and out of touch with the realities in Ohio.
Four years ago, the country had high hopes for President-elect Barack Obama. He didn’t have a lot of experience - even his own running mate had questioned if he was ready for the job - but he delivered eloquent speeches with soaring rhetoric. But now the president has to run on his record.
And here is his stirring tribute to the Great Helmsman Mitt:
Governor Romney offers a proven record of accomplishment and a vision for a stronger America. He has proposed a bold agenda to reduce the size of government, reform the tax code, and get spending under control. He will strengthen America at home and abroad. He will tackle the tough problems that President Obama has ignored.
Gotta say, Portman sounds like a mid-level Soviet factotum trying to toe the party line at the Ninth Congress of the Toilers of the East—poorly.
The funny thing is that the GOP is chock-full of truly hateful people these days, more than willing to go out there and suggest that Barack Obama is, if not Satan Himself, then Satan’s Imp. And I’m sure before long most Republicans will be routinely describing Romney as possessing George Washington’s leadership skills, Abraham Lincoln’s sagacity, and Ronald Reagan’s charisma.
If Mitt’s computers spit out Portman’s name, what he’ll need is not so much a thorough vetting, but a helium injection, just to get the trial balloons a bit higher off the ground.
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FlipYrWhig on May 07, 2012 4:21 PM:
It's very evident that the Romney campaign's big themes are going to be (1) he's rich and he'll make us all rich, and (2) he's Fifties Dad, dull, square, serious, and ready to spank our nation into shape.
T2 on May 07, 2012 4:35 PM:
Portman was also George W. Bush's director of the Office of Management and Budget for the final few years of the Bush presidency. Those years, you may remember, saw the onset and blow up of the Great Recession. Wiki OMB and you'll see what Portman was supposed to be overseeing for George. The result.....Great Recession. And 0% interest rates for Banks and Corporations.....
June on May 07, 2012 4:51 PM:
Thank you for pointing that out, @ T2!
DisgustedWithItAll on May 07, 2012 5:40 PM:
Maybe Kilgore doesn't understand the drip, drip, drip effectiveness of this sort of thing.
And Democrats wonder why they lose.
Rip on May 07, 2012 5:45 PM:
Nobody really votes for the Vice President, not even home staters. At best the choice reassures unenthusiastic ideologues within the party ( Palin), at worst it's a distraction and reflection on the presidential candidate's poor judgement ( Palin again). But in either case, I doubt many minds are actually changed.
Portman would do neither of these things. Probably the only votes in Ohio that might change from Obama to Romney as a result of him being on the ticket are those of Portman's kids.
Romney might as well pick Portman, because he is at least unlikely to embarrass Mitt on the campaign trail, and it will garner him a few days of positive press from the beltway crowd for picking a "serious" running mate.
The 2016 crowd in the Republican Party will rest easy as well, knowing that Portman lacks the charisma to use a losing Veep bid as a springboard for his own bid four years hence.
Hedda Peraz on May 07, 2012 5:53 PM:
Texan Cactus Jack Garner: "The vice presidency is not worth a bucket of warm piss."
(For all the historians in the audience. . .)
trog69 on May 07, 2012 5:58 PM:
Too bad the word "blah" has been hijacked, 'cause Portman has it weeping from his pores.
Mr. Kilgore, if that "helium" line is original, it's a winner.
kitsune on May 07, 2012 7:17 PM:
Yes, please give Obama another example of how a vote for Romney is a vote for Bush. Have Bush's budget director on the ticket. Yes, that's exactly what America is hoping for. Genius. No wonder the Latinos and everyone else is so excited for Natalie Portman, I mean, Rob Portman as VP candidate.