My thoughts on Romney and who he should pick for Vice President

With Rich Santorum and Newt Gingrich dropping out of the GOP primary it clears the way for Mitt Romney to become the GOP nominee.  Mitt Romney was not my first choice as the GOP nominee but that doesn’t mean I won’t support him. I do have questions about how conservative he is because of his decisions as Governor of Massachusetts. He is the de facto Godfather of Obamacare by creating Romney care. I do not feel that these issues make me so uneasy that I could not support Romney for President against Obama.  Let’s not forget that many including myself saw Romney as the conservative alternative to John McCain in 2008. While my preference would have been another candidate; now is the time as a party to come together and turn our attention to beating Barrack Obama in November.

Where does Romney’s strengths lay going forward against the President? In this economy, Mitt needs to focus on his business background. He needs to beat this point to death and challenge the President on this every chance he gets. The first time that Barrack Obama has ran anything that closely resembles a business is when he became President.  Mitt should pounce on this and remind everyone how he made the Salt Lake City Olympics successful.  He should reinforce how many jobs he created and much tax dollars he generated without raising taxes and how much his business contributed the benefit of the communities they were in (i.e. charities…etc.).

National Security is another key area where Governor Romney can beat President Obama. Obama has shown that he is going to try to exploit the fact that Bin Laden was killed during his time as Commander-in-Chief. Mitt can counter that by reminding everyone that it was President Bush’s policies that worked to make this happen. I would also recommend at strategy going forward that he will not use the military as political tool the way President Obama has done with Seal Team Six.  This would hit home with many conservatives and show that unlike President Obama he will focus more on keep us safe rather than campaigning his during his entire presidency.

The final area I believe Mitt should concentrate on reminding voters on the huge difference between him and President Obama is for Supreme Court nominations.  It is likely that during the next 4 years there could be 3-5 justices to leave the bench and the court would likely shift one way or the other during the next administration. It is important for Romney to remind voters and especially conservatives that are not enthused by his nomination that he would nominate those like Roberts, Alito, and Scalia rather than Obama who seeks ultra-liberals.

Let’s talk VP picks. I believe picking the correct running mate is more important now that it has ever been because of the 24-hr news cycle. The media is relentless covering politics and will dissect very thing possible about a VP choice, especially the GOP VP choice. It is important obviously that the VP choice is qualified and ready to become President if need be.  Other qualifications that should be considered in this social media driven news cycle are:

-          The ability to energize and mobilize voters, for Romney this is especially true of the conservative base.

-           The ability to balance the ticket. Similar to what Gov. Palin did in 2008. She was able to motivate the conservatism to vote for McCain who has had the label of RINO associated with him for a number of years. If Palin had not been on the ticket McCain would have lost by a far wider margin than what he did.

While Senator Rob Portman has been rumored to be the VP nominee and he is someone that I feel is highly qualified for the position I do not feel he is the right choice this time. I feel that their are better candidates with similar qualities as Senator Portman but have the ability to connect and motivate conservatives. My recommendation would be either Congressman Paul Ryan, Governor Walker of Wisconsin, and Senator Marco Rubio. Each of these candidates have become stars inside the tea party and have shown the leadership needed to step in and become President if need be. While they will be attacked relentlessly by liberals they have already shown the ability to handle those attacks in a positive manner and come out on top.

Death of Osama Bin Laden

Like many people that were affected by 9/11 today was a day that we have been looking forward to for almost 10 years. While I didn’t lose anybody 9/11, I was directly affected because I worked for Comair Airlines and was at the Cincinnati Airport when it happened. I remember watching planes land a park anywhere there was an open gate at the airport, it didn’t matter what airline it was. I can recall the airport being evacuated and bomb stiffing dogs going throughout the airport. The once the American skies reopened I wondered how many people would fly again and if I would be laid off again just like I was when the Comair pilots went on strike

 

 The events changed the way America looked at the world. For the first time, many Americans felt vulnerable to terrorism within the United States. Much like we associated Stalin with communism and Hitler with the Holocaust, the face of terrorism was Osama Bin Laden. Until the towers came down I don’t think the average American, or those within our own government understood what we were up against.

 

Enough of rehashing the past, we all know the story, and that isn’t the point of the blog. May 1, 2011 should go down as a day of celebration, and reflection, much like Memorial Day. We celebrate the death of an evil and vile man. We also should take time to reflect and give thanks to the men and women that served our country and worked hard over the last ten plus years to kill this man.

 

We must also give thanks to President Bush. His leadership and his willingness to the fight terrorism relentlessly, and unapologetically, helped us get to the point that we had the ability to kill Bin Laden. Finally President Obama must be given his due. No matter your political leaning, President Obama did something that Bill Clinton refused to do before 9/11 and that was he was will to put his neck on the line when he had solid intelligence as to where Bin Laden.

 

President Obama had the courage to send troops into Pakistan, which was extremely risky given the current state of relations and the chance of the mission being a failure. The President should be commended for taking such action, and authorizing this military mission. Of course though our President and the rest of the country owes and debt of gratitude to those that were directly involved in executing this mission with such precision and professionalism.

 

May 1, 2011 will not be the day that ended terrorism unfortunately. There are still plenty out there that want to destroy America because of their intolerant and radical views. What this date symbolizes, is that America has the resolved, the will, and the resources to destroy those that seek to destroy us. Throughout our history, whether it was England during the Revolutionary War, Japan during World War II, Russia during the Cold War or Al Qaida during the war on terror, there has been one theme throughout American History. You make knock us down, but by the grace of  God,  America will get back up dust ourselves off and we will unleash the entire force of the American military to hunt you down and if need be kill you.