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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Jules Witcover
Groucho Marx was said to have declared that he wouldn't want to be a member of a club that would have him as a member. One wonders whether Mitt Romney may feel deep down the same way about his
That is so even as he has gone all-in on many of their most cherished positions. He joined the
Still, many in the conservative party base are concerned as the
The betting increasingly is that, as a man of caution, Romney will choose Sen. Rob Portman of swing-state Ohio, a former George W.Bush budget director, declaring, as all presidential nominees do, that he has picked the best qualified person to be president if fate so determines.
But as selection time draws near, many party conservatives have been pressuring Romney to roll the dice and select the
Leading pro-Ryan advocates include the editorial board of the
Tapping Ryan as the running mate would obviously please the conservative base, including members of the tea party movement , which has already indicated a willingness to risk losing for the sake of holding to its politically extreme positions. However, to win the election, the Republican nominees must attract voters beyond that base, among moderates and independents.
Those arguing for Ryan see him as a vehicle for injecting the true conservative agenda into the Romney campaign, which seems to them increasingly bland and stagnant as it drifts through a boring summer, interrupted only by a less than helpful trip abroad by its gafffe-prone candidate.
Shifting public-opinion polling numbers, particularly in the swing states, have caused conservative Republicans to fear that Romney may be headed for defeat by depending too much on anti-Obama sentiment to hand him the
The Democrats, no doubt, would be gleeful to have Ryan on the ticket with Romney. He would make it easier to paint the Republican team as a certain threat to entitlement programs from
Romney choosing Ryan as his running mate would not necessarily seem like the sort of desperate act that John McCain perpetrated four years ago in plucking Sarah Palin from national obscurity in far-off Alaska. His 14 years in
At any rate, in such company Romney himself might be inclined to sharpen his own action plan for recovery, still not clear or persuasive to many voters.
AMERICAN POLITICS
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Romney and the Republican Club | Politics
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