I’m a big fan of Rob Portman’s too, but I wanted to correct something in Larry Kudlow’s post about him yesterday. Larry writes “As OMB director he talked Bush into the President’s first veto of his entire administration.” Bush’s first veto was of a bill to overturn his funding policy on embryonic stem cell research, vetoed on July 19, 2006. I can tell you with absolute certainty that Portman—while surely on the same side of the issue—had essentially nothing to do with the White House process on that veto, and that Bush didn’t need anyone to talk him into it in any case.

Larry probably has in mind the second veto, in May of 2007, of an appropriations supplemental, to which Portman was certainly key.

I would second the larger point of Larry’s post, though: Portman is smart, extremely knowledgeable in the intricacies of domestic policy, a great manager, a solid social and fiscal conservative, and an able debater and speaker. He would not only be a great vice presidential candidate, he would be a great vice president.