Sunday, August 10, 2008 3:15 AM
The best part of being a sports commentator would be that people expect you to be full of it at least half the time.
Think about all the times Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso have picked the wrong team to win on ESPN's College GameDay. Or when radio's Mike & Mike -- as in Greenberg and Golic -- screw up their NFL Sunday picks. After some gentle razzing, fans of their shows still like them and everybody moves on. No grudges.
That's not how it works in politics. People really get mad at political pundits and even come to loathe them (think MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Fox's Bill O'Reilly). I know this, too, by reading my e-mail on Mondays.
By now, readers of this column realize that some of the predictions published here must have been drawn from informed sources and some from uninformed souses. When they've been right, few readers say attaboy; when they've been wrong, many say I'm an idiot.
So send a little love when the following turns out to be true: Republican John McCain will select Rob Portman as his running mate.
Rob who? That question underpins a dichotomous aspect of a Portman veep candidacy. Portman is from Ohio and McCain needs to win Ohio to become president. But not many people outside the Cincinnati area know Portman, so his ability to deliver the state for McCain is questionable.
Then again, 30 minutes after McCain picks Portman, every Buckeye will know that there could be an Ohioan in the White House, enhancing McCain's chances of winning the state. Portman, a five-term former congressman, is especially popular in Republican-rich southwestern Ohio, where McCain will need to maximize his vote against Democrat Barack Obama.
Working against Portman is his closeness to the Bush family. He served in various capacities in President Bush 41's administration and remains close to the patriarch and his wife, Barbara. Bush 43 plucked Portman out of Congress to be his budget director and then U.S. trade representative. Given 43's profound unpopularity, Portman's closeness to the president could be a liability for McCain.
But I think the damage would be negligible. Certainly, having Portman on the ticket would provide a bit more fodder for Obama's portrayal of a McCain presidency as a Bush third term. That attack will continue, however, regardless of whether Portman is the running mate, and voters will either buy it or not.
Portman's productivity and reputation for bipartisanship in the House made him popular with members from both parties. His impressive resume (don't hold the University of Michigan law degree against him) qualifies him for veep consideration. His economic expertise would supplement a McCain weakness.
"The first test for vice president is, could he be president? And Rob Portman passes that test with flying colors," said former Sen. Mike DeWine, McCain's Ohio chairman. "He is very strong on domestic issues due to his experience and the different positions he's held and it certainly would help in Ohio having an Ohio vice president on the ticket."
Republican Gov. John Bricker in 1944 was the last Ohioan to run for vice president. He helped Thomas E. Dewey carry the state, although Franklin D. Roosevelt went on to be re-elected.
If successful, McCain would be 72 when inaugurated, the nation's oldest elected president. Portman is 52, handsome, has an attractive family and is untainted by misbehavior. He is a less-than-inspiring orator but exudes trustworthiness.
McCain needs help with the Republican conservative base of voters, and Portman is one of their darlings. He also is a prolific fundraiser, close to the national GOP's Cincinnati political sugar daddies, especially businessman Mercer Reynolds and the Lind-ner family.
More than anything, McCain will choose a running mate he likes to be around. His comfort with Portman was evident last month when I rode the campaign bus with them from Downtown to a fundraiser at the New Albany home of Leslie H. Wexner.
Remember where you read it: Portman will be McCain's running mate.
If that prediction is wrong, pretend I'm Kirk Herbstreit.
Joe Hallett is senior editor at The Dispatch.
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