Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, accompanied by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. (Associated Press)
With Mitt Romney’s nomination as the Republican presidential candidate almost set in stone, the focus has shifted to a new topic: who will be his running mate?
“I want someone who without question could be president, and there are women who meet that requirement as well as men,” Mitt Romney told Larry Kudlow on Tuesday night’s Kudlow Report on CNBC.
With about two-thirds of the Republican presidential primaries completed, Romney has become the sole front-runner in the GOP race.
Only 460 more delegates are needed to secure Romney’s nomination, with 684 in the bag already. His closest competitor Newt Gingrich dropped out of the race Tuesday.
Even though Romney has a strong lead over any other contender in the GOP race, some hesitation surrounds whether or not he would be a strong enough opponent in the general election to beat President Barack Obama.
On the primarily conservative campus of Southern Methodist University, the debate over the strongest contender to knock Obama out of office surges, along with suggestions as to which vice presidential candidate might help Romney become president. Conversations with a handful of conservatives provide a sampling of sentiment.
“If the American population is stupid enough to not realize the economic downfall we have been experiencing due to current office decisions,” sophomore communication studies major James Mangum said. “Reelecting Obama as president is the worst possible decision, and will leave the U.S. in a worse economic condition than Greece within five years.”
“I would only vote for Romney if he changed his platform to reflect the two most important issues to me: reforming the banking system and humbling our foreign policy,” sophomore political science major Richard Gee said.
Millennials, or anyone between the ages of 18 and 30, are known to affiliate more with the Democratic Party than with the GOP. Only 36 percent of Millennial voters are affiliated with the GOP, according to a Pew Research Center for the People and the Press study. The study also found that enthusiasm for politics in the Millennials has cooled since Obama’s 2008 campaign and for his message of change.
Though some conservatives, like Gee, don’t necessarily agree that Romney is the answer to the country’s problems, most agree that to even have a shot at winning the presidency, a strong running mate is a necessity, such as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio or Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan.
“Choosing Marco Rubio might help him win Hispanic voters. Paul Ryan might help him win the younger crowd, but I don’t think he can beat Obama,” Charlotte, N.C. native Gee comments. “Romney gives off a slick Republican vibe that is hard to get excited about.”
Alaina Leggette, a freshman economics major from Baton Rouge, La., thinks Rubio is the right choice as well. “Once he realizes he can help get Obama out and America back on track, I think he would go for it if Romney asks him to be his vice president,” she says.
Rubio has claimed, since summer, that he will not accept an offer to become Romney’s running mate. In an interview last week with CNN en Español’s Ismael Cala, he firmly said, “I’m not going to be the vice president. I’m not.”
Incoming SMU College Republicans President W. Tucker Keene disagrees regarding Romney’s chances. “Absolutely, I think Romney can beat Obama! I don’t think it will be easy, but it is definitely possible,” he said.
Sam Welles, a junior history major from Wellington, Fla., believes Romney can secure the presidency as well.
“I think he can beat Obama because I feel that most people have lost faith in Obama and his ability to lead this nation in a positive way,” he said.
Keene, a sophomore political science major from South Dartmouth, Mass., believes that Romney’s biggest problem in winning votes right now is skepticism from the right over his largely moderate-to-liberal record as governor of Massachusetts.
He thinks Paul Ryan would be the best option for a vice president.
“Ryan’s budget is wildly popular with conservatives, and picking him as vice president would be a signal to the right that Romney isn’t going to abandon us,” he said. “His budget will already be on the table too. Obama and the Democrats are going to demagogue it to no end. So if the demagoguing is inevitable, why not put the man who defends and articulates its argument best on the ticket?”
Rubio and Ryan seem to stand out as favorites among conservative-minded SMU students.
These two options are seen as the best aid to Romney in the race, who has the support of 45 percent of registered voters when compared to the 47 percent supporting Obama, according to a CNN Poll of Polls released Wednesday.
Wyatt Mesh, a junior engineering major from Kansas City, Mo., believes that for Romney to beat Obama, he has to use the president’s own words and actions against him and develop a clear, simple message that resonates with the common voter.
“Romney should exploit Obama’s weakness as a leader, especially given the fact that he couldn’t get most of his agenda through Congress when the Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate in 2009 and 2010,” Mesh said.
Mesh also believes the “obvious choice” is Rubio, who will bring “fire to the somewhat boring Romney camp,” along with securing the Hispanic vote and helping Romney to carry the key battleground state of Florida.
