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.