I spent lot of time in D.C. a few years back doing what could be called lobbying on pension reform legislation. I met several times with Portman, and many more times with his staff. He is the real deal.

The democrats are as excited about Barack Obama in 2004 as they were about Grey Davis in 1998.

hilary, bayh, edwards, kerry, obama, ugh, ugh, ugh, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy, when your party stands for nothing of merit, the people who do stand for something of merit gravitate away from that party.

there are atleast 6-7 conservatives that excite the base.

This is almost ridiculous for Ohio.
Current Ohio Secretary of State, Kenneth Blackwell, is the cream of the crop when it comes to Ohio Republicans' having a candidate of national stature.
I can't understand all the state party buzz for Portman, unless there's something about Blackwell the state party doesn't like, which would be truly frightening.
Blackwell has already won a statewide election and should be, in an intelligent world, unopposed as the party's gubernatorial candidate.
He's intellectual, charismatic and conservative to the core.
Mike

Oh Lord. I thought I had explained this before.

The Ohio Republican Party is an unreconstructed Nixonian party. It is not Reaganite. The top figures in the party, Sens. Voinivich and Dewine and Gov. Taft believe in balancing the budget by raising taxes. The party opposed Issue 1 which banned Gay Marriage. The party is run by a man named Bob Bennett (no relation to the lawyer for Bill Clinton).

They had developed bench problems lately. One playa Deters, the State Treasurer, was involved in a fund raising scam organized by the Speaker of the house (who was term limited back to the boondocks). He was sent back to Cincinnati to take the job of prosecutor from some guy who had developed a bad case of seven year itch. They have a 67 year old Janet Reno in the Auditors office named Betty Montgomery, but she is a loose cannon and lacks charisma as well as having life style issues.

That leaves them with Jim Petro the AG, who looks like an ex football player and seems to be about that smart and very dull too.

Thus the Portman bubble.

Here is a quote from the 11/16 article by Riskind:

Under a plan talked about privately by Republicans, Taft would name Lt. Gov. Jennette Bradley to replace state Treasurer Joseph T. Deters, who will resign in early January to become Hamilton County prosecutor. Taft then would select Portman as lieutenant governor. If Taft assumed a federal post, such as director of the Peace Corps, Portman would become governor. . .

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Robert T. Bennett, who characterized Portman as "presidential timber," said that a deal making Portman governor before 2006 would make it "easy for me" because it would allow the party to avoid a brutal gubernatorial primary among Auditor Betty D. Montgomery, Attorney General Jim Petro and Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.

Bennett, who said he was "not the father" of the Portman-to-governor plan, conceded that if Portman waited until 2006 to run in the GOP primary, he would be "starting behind" Montgomery, Petro and Blackwell, "although he might be able to catch up."

Instead, Bennett yesterday urged that Bush and his top advisers consider Montgomery, Petro or Blackwell for senior administration posts. If one or more of them moved to Washington, Portman would have a better shot at the 2006 nomination.

"I’m hoping Ken, Betty or Jim might have some desire to serve in the president’s cabinet," Bennett said, adding that he had talked to Bush’s political advisers to "find the appropriate spot — help me out here, fellas." Yet a GOP source close to the White House said the Portman plan has not been sanctioned by Bush’s top advisers. The source said that neither Taft nor Blackwell is being considered for the cabinet.

Clearly the Ohio Republican Wet Dream is that the Federal Duck will come down from the Ceiling and save them from a messy primary in 2006 by annointing Portman, or if that cannot be arranged, getting Blackwell out of town.

Now we get to the real problem. Blackwell. First. He is a conservative. He supported Issue 1. he opposed increasing taxes to balance the budget. Second they view him as an uppity @#$%&%$#, who is not a "team player." The general election gave him a lot of good face time on television.

Even though Democrats demonized him as they did Katherine Harris in 2000, they will not be able to effectively run against him in the General Election, because their core constituency in Ohio is blacks. It is entirely possible that the democrat candidate in 2006 wil be the mayor of Columbus Mike Coleman who is also black, but unlike Blackwell is incompetent.

Personnaly, I don't think the Portman boom will come down to much. My guess is that if he wants to move up in Ohio politics he better run for AG in 2006. Gov in 2014, National office around 2022.