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Portman campaigns with Romney in South Carolina

Ohio senator urges GOP to support Mass. ex-governor.

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, right, and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, call eligible voters from his campaign headquarters in Charleston, S.C., Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012.

Charles Dharapak/AP Photo Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, right, and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, call eligible voters from his campaign headquarters in Charleston, S.C., Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012.

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By Jack Torry, Washington Bureau 10:20 PM Thursday, January 19, 2012

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Declaring that “it’s time to take a stand," Sen. Rob Portman on Thursday urged Republicans to unite behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as “the candidate best equipped to beat” President Barack Obama in November.

Appearing with Romney outside the Republican presidential candidate’s Charleston office, Portman, R-Ohio, said that “with his financial and business experience,’’ Romney “actually knows to create jobs.’’

“He actually knows what Washington ought to be doing, not to create jobs because government doesn’t create jobs, but to create the climate for success,’’ Portman said.

Portman, who clearly is regarded as a potential vice presidential running mate for the Republican nominee, joined former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley with Romney on the campaign trail just two days before the state’s Republican primary.

Although polls show that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has cut into Romney’s lead in what has become a vitriolic campaign, most analysts believe that if Romney wins Saturday, he will have virtually clinched the Republican presidential nomination.

With Thursday’s decision by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to drop out of the race, the only Republican contenders remaining are Romney, Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Seth Bringman, communications director for the Ohio Democratic Party, assailed Portman, saying that “this endorsement comes as no surprise, seeing that Rob Portman has spent his entire career standing up for big corporations like Bain Capital, where Mitt Romney put profits over people by bankrupting companies, outsourcing jobs, and laying off workers to line his own pockets.’’

Bringman was referring to the private equity firm that Romney headed from 1984 to 1999.

Portman, who flew to South Carolina with his wife Jane for the event, reminded a Charleston audience that he served both Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush and that he had “seen the kind of tough issues that comes across a president’s desk. And I’ve seen the kind of steady leadership that’s required in the Oval Office. I’ve seen it first-hand.’’

Portman served as a White House aide for the elder Bush from 1989 to 1991, while holding the posts of White House budget director and U.S. trade representative under the younger Bush.

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