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So, apparently Ohio Senator Rob Portman may actually be a leading candidate in the “Veepstakes” after all.

When I first saw a Plain Dealer column to this effect, a couple of weeks ago, I thought “yeah, you bet, just like at least one prospect in every state in the union (with the exception of maybe, say, Vermont), in all of which there’s going to be some Yepsen-style self-appointed political pundit capable of convincing him or herself that a local politician stands to become a national mover-and-shaker.”

And yet, I’ve seen this a few times since, and now even The Economist‘s Lexington columnist has anointed Portman as his(?) favored Romney running mate.

I still don’t believe it, mind. After all, who was predicting Joe Biden as Obama’s running mate four years ago? All of the smart money was on Bill Richardson, or Hillary, with maybe a few other minor possibilities. None of whom were Biden; everyone knew he was way too gaffe-prone after all.

Still, that aside, I suppose it could be. After all, Biden (and, before that, Cheney) suggests that the eventual pick will be exactly the kind of person no one has heard of whom Portman epitomizes, aside from a few speculative online articles. I mean, I LIVE HERE IN OHIO and I can’t fathom what on Earth would make Portman seem like an appealing candidate, even if I pretend that I’m Mitt Romney. Apparently Romney likes Portman, and vice versa, and I guess I can see that. But otherwise?

I don’t think Portman can realistically provide any help for the Romney ticket in Ohio; he hardly qualifies as a “favorite son.” He hasn’t been around long enough to become any kind of institution, or rack up goodwill from groups through the role of Senate “fixer.” Portman has basically no record, whatsoever, that I can think of. Which I suppose is a kind of plus, in that a gray-haired cypher is unlikely to sink the ticket, and given the fate of the previous GOP presidential campaign it isn’t hard to imagine a strong “first, do no harm” mentality dominating thoughts on a Veep selection. I still can’t imagine this makes Portman all that unique or irreplaceable.

That said, though, if Romney wants to nominate Rob Portman, I say go right ahead. Dream scenario, Portman resigns his Senate seat and we get a free do-over on electing an actually useful junior Senator from Ohio, and Romney & Rob then go on to lose the race for the White House too. Otherwise, if Romney wins I don’t see his administration being made any worse by Portman than it would be anyway, and we still get the free shot; if Romney loses and Portman just goes back to being another brick in the GOP Senate wall, here again we’re not really worse off than before.

So, go right ahead, Mitt. Take Rob Portman—please.

I still need to put the ballot envelope in the mailing envelope and seal it, then add postage (one of those 65¢ stamps which, um, don’t actually exist) but otherwise I’m done with my primary ballot. As I am participating in the Democratic primary rather than the Republican, of course, I miss out on the “big ticket” contest, for the presidency; if Obama is facing any primary challengers they didn’t make it onto the ballot here in Ohio.

All in all, I might well have just skipped this primary entirely if not for a by-product of Buckeye Republicans’ exercise in broad-daylight gerrymandering. As it is, one of the many ridiculous districts which make up their new map-to-disenfranchisement now snakes along Lake Erie all the way from western Cleveland to Toledo. And, as a (possibly not-unintentional) result, two long-time Democratic incumbents Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur now find themselves fighting over one congressional seat. A third candidate, 20-something “entrepreneur” Graham Veysey has also gotten his name on the ballot. As far as I know the oddsmakers give the latter zero prospect of winning the nomination, while the larger portion of her old “base” preserved in the new district is expected to give Kaptur a slight advantage, though no one is quite ready to write off a veteran pol like Kucinich until it actually happens.

Personally, I’m pretty familiar with Kucinich already, and I tried to give Kaptur a fair look, and after considering the pair of them and their challenger, I voted for the challenger.

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So, Britain has a Green Party, like many countries. They’ve made a few more inroads than have our Greens; they have one seat in Parliament, and last year they won a plurality of seats on the Brighton and Hove City Council.

I saw a partly skeptical item in The Independent the other day about how this is working out for them; it closed by noting that

The Green Party meets in Liverpool next weekend determined to prove that running councils and having their first MP has not dampened their radical zeal. Here are some issues on the agenda:

1 Defend the right to protest.

2 Promote sailing boats over diesel-powered vessels.

3 Ban junk-food adverts before the 9pm watershed.

4 Tax unhealthy food to fund campaigns encouraging people to eat more fruit and vegetables and less meat.

5 Make bankers liable for personal penalties if they wreck whole economies.

6 Support the global Occupy movement.

7 Impose a wealth tax.

8 Remove “loitering or soliciting for the purpose of prostitution” and “brothelkeeping” from definition of sexual offences.

9 Support co-ops and mutuals in a time of economic crisis.

10 Develop major new climate change policy.

11 Tackle the “great train-fare robbery”.

12 Keep the NHS public.

I thought this was worth “clipping out” and posting, here, not least given the struggle of America’s left to communicate a clear agenda just now. How does this look as a template? (more…)