Pew Research center’s latest data on public attitudes about
the 2012 presidential election confirms that this election cycle isn’t as
exciting as the last; most people (56%) feel it’s dull—as they normally do months
before an election year.
That’s not surprising for Americans; getting excited in
elections, anyway, is the kind of thing people who speak French or Italian do—and
look at the mess they’re in. However, there is a nugget in the Pew findings
that Mitt Romney must now be pondering.
“Currently, 33% of Republicans
say the presidential campaign is interesting down from 52% in late March (March
22-25). The share of Republicans describing this year’s campaign as dull has
spiked from 42% to 60% since then. By contrast, Democrats are finding the
campaign increasingly interesting as the general election gets underway.
Currently, 45% say it is interesting, up from 36% in March.
“While fewer Republicans than Democrats currently say the campaign has
been interesting, GOP voters are more engaged than Democratic voters in the 2012 campaign. For instance, more
Republicans are giving quite a lot of thought to the election and more say it
really matters who wins.”
Dull will not keep Romney out of the White House! Dull will
not deter his voters. Indeed, if he’d stop making interesting mistakes, dull
could actually enhance his authenticity—and partly trivialize the scary
elements of his platform.
Bearing all this in mind, Rob Portman must be Romney’s vice-presidential running mate.
He’s a generic Republican, a tallish WASP, a mid-West law
graduate from in-offensive Ohio. He was and remains the guy you elect as class
treasurer in high school. Portman has been in Washington since 1993—as a
lobbyist, congressman, Cabinet executive in the Bush presidency, and now a
first-term senator. He’s been at the center of Republican decision-making for
ten years.
Despite all the temptations, he’s served the conservative
cause without, yet, saying anything remarkable or against the grain. Without
saying anything interesting—or disloyal—he’s readily described as very
intelligent, sensible, and electable.
Portman penned his application for the vice-presidential
nomination in a Fourth of July column in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It’s a classic; it’s everything the scripters need
and not one thought out of harmony.
Portman embraces every accusation about Obama’s record that
has been made by Republicans in Washington and by the candidates for either job
on the Republican ticket. With the pseudo-precision of a lawyer/labor market
analyst, he asserts that Obama is 42% off his team’s original promise to reduce
joblessness.
What should be most re-assuring to Romney, however, is
that Portman can also repeat the tax, fiscal, and social policy positions of
Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and the Tea Party—and sound as reasonable as those
Mid-west Republicans who a generation ago were trusted to stay away from the
extremes.
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