Opinion: The search for Romney’s running mate

 

 

Bruce Walton

Bruce Walton is a freshman news major and columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].

Republican Candidate Mitt Romney had just swept up five more states in Tuesday’s primaries, probably his easiest win in a while. Yet not only does he lack major support from his constituents, his fellow politicians have become a new problem for Romney to overcome.

Romney has always had a problem with his Republican voters, especially at the base; that the party lifted up almost every other candidate before “settling” on him proved this.

The Tea Party fails to see him as radical enough and flip-flopping because of his moderate time in Massachusetts.

Now that Romney has taken most of the delegates and most of the other opponents have dropped out or perpetually “suspended” their campaign, he is the subsequent nominee; however his fellow Republicans have yet to endorse him fully. Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Sarah Palin — all once-popular Republican figures with the Tea party and social conservatives — have said they could not endorse Romney earlier this year. As soon as he became the projected nominee, however, they half-heartedly gave their support and criticism.

Newt Gingrich, who will be “suspending” his campaign next Tuesday and endorsing Romney, may be one of the few who admitted supporting Romney if he were to be the nominee.

Although most of the Republican people and candidates have conspired against the Mormon-billionaire-governor, they now slowly stand by him, dragging their feet. [[But now a new trend has made me see how strange the Republicans are acting when it comes to Romney.]]

Of course, now, Romney is the projected nominee of the Republican Party, so now he’ll have to find a running mate to share the ticket with him. That would be easy; however, even before Romney has thought about who might run with him, rejections are flooding in.

Although Romney isn’t thinking about who his running mate could be, that doesn’t stop the media. Many say that Romney needs a running mate that can make him look good without overshadowing him, like Palin did with McCain in 2008.

But seeing as mayonnaise on Wonder Bread could upstage him, it’ll be hard finding an appropriate vice presidential candidate. A recent poll from CNN for Romney’s projected running mates included: former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice; Sen. Rick Santorum; Gov. Chris Christie; Sen. Marco Rubio; Rep. Paul Ryan; Gov. Bobby Jindal; Gov. Bob McDonnell; and Ohio’s very own Sen. Rob Portman.

Rice has completely rejected the idea; Christie has said he didn’t want to be in this race period, so VP is definitely not what he’s going for; Santorum is still having a hard time officially endorsing Romney, let alone running with him. Rubio and Portman played hot potato and even brought Jeb Bush into the affair, who also did not want to touch this one. The rest have not said yes, only a no, or maybe, but no one has been jumping or even standing at the offer when asked by reporters.

Either way, this isn’t good for Romney. There should be a little more movement toward him. Right now, it should be a stream of support from most sides of his party, but all I can see is a trickle. Obama is at a speeding momentum, already winning over people and his party is standing right with him. Romney is only now starting to pick up steam, with a considerable amount of resistance. Romney needs to pick it up or Obama has got a very good start.