Many national publications speculated on Portman becoming the vice presidential nominee soon after Romney became the presumptive nominee . In " Why Rob Portman Will Be Romney 's Vice Presidential Nominee , " an article in '' The Atlantic '' , acclaimed syndicated journalist Major Garrett authored " In the frenzied environment that will accompany the prelude to Romney 's pick , the Portman choice may land with a thud on the charisma meter , but it wo n't set in motion a wave of " guess what " stories and will allow Romney to focus on the campaign , not thorny revelations that must be ritualistically turned into an us-against-them media meme . In fact , Portman might actually talk Boston out of its hypertensive and allergic reactions to reporters . " Closer to the time of a selection , news agencies began highlighting Portman 's perceived strengths and weaknesses . Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post wrote " Portman 's spent time in both the executive and legislative branches and everywhere he 's served he 's won kudos for his abilities . It 's hard to imagine that even his staunchest Democratic opponents would be able to argue that Portman would n't be up to the task of being vice president or even president . " After the selection of Paul Ryan , Portman spoke at the 2012 Republican National Convention about trade and his family business . On trade agreements , Portman stated : " President Obama is the first president in 75 years-Democrat or Republican-who has n't even sought the ability to negotiate export agreements and open markets overseas . Now why is this important ? Because 95 percent of the world 's consumers live outside our borders . And to create jobs , our workers and our farmers need to sell more of what we make to those people . " On October 13 , 2012 Mitt Romney spoke at and toured the Golden Lamb Inn
2012 Republican National Convention
2012 Republican National Convention
Rob Portman