Portman?

JUMP? “ “Let’s just eliminate the drama and suspense right now. Romney is going to pick Rob Portman,” declared the Daily Beast’s Mark McKinnon, a political strategist who has worked for Republicans and Democrats. McKinnon is not alone in his prediction. In recent weeks, Portman has been the name making the rounds as the top choice in the Romney VP rumor mill. Let's go right to the bottom line.  While Portman has many positives, so to did Bush 41 in 1980, ahem. bottom line Portman, who notes that he owns hybrid cars, is an advocate of tapping various energy sources. He’s also voted to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. “As a U.S. Senator, Rob will champion policies that recognize and harness the power of Ohio’s natural resources – including natural gas, coal, solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, oil, and bio-mass,” his Senate campaign energy plan states. In 2000, Portman voted for implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meant to fight global warming by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide. The protocol has not been ratified by the U.S. Portman authored the Tropical Forest Conservation Act, a piece of legislation the Bush White House described as a “program [that] enables eligible low and middle income countries to substitute some portion of their debt obligations to the United States for domestic tropical forest conservation and protection activities.” Portman also voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, newly structured by Joe Biden and offering  and increased number of visas to illegal-alien victims and offers specific protections of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender victims. You can read more, nuch more here Mitt to Choose This GOP-Establishment VP?  I'm not going to hold anyone to 100% compliance with my standard (that person does not exist, which is not an entirely bad thing), but there are hot button issues. One is embracing the idea of AGW (man caused climate change).  Anyone that does is dispensing nostrums for political gain, or so abjectly thick headed as to be unfit to serve. Since Romney's  own shifting positions on the subject fall under that rubric, I suppose it's a moot point.   ”