Rob Portman has been preparing for this for years.
Although the Ohio senator offers the standard line that he doesn’t expect to be picked as Mitt Romney’s running mate, the trajectory of his career and his political conduct in Washington have made nearly everyone in politics almost certain that he’ll be plucked for this year’s Republican presidential ticket.
Bob Paduchik, a veteran consultant who ran George W. Bush’s re-election effort in Ohio as well as Portman’s Senate campaign in 2010, bottom-lined it: “Rob Portman is uniquely qualified to do the job on Day One. I can’t think of another candidate who’s as qualified as Rob Portman.”
And that is because Portman has had a wealth of impressive jobs: congressman, U.S. trade representative, George W. Bush’s budget director and now senator. He’s also a lawyer — even serving as associate counsel in the White House in the early 1990s — and has been a small business owner.
“Rob is definitely special,” Paduchik said. “He’s like an infielder that can go right and go left: He works hard at the politics. But he’s also got that understanding of government. I’ve always thought of him as exceptional.” And that’s why Paduchik, who swears that he’s retired from campaign politics, decided to run Portman’s Senate race after hitting a high point as Karl Rove’s man in the Buckeye State in 2004. In 2010, he says, “I didn’t do that because I wanted to go do a Senate campaign. I did it because he’s a friend.”
Read more at Real Clear Politics.
