Since he was first elected to the Senate, we have heard Marco Rubio’s name floated time and again as a potential running mate for the Republican nominee. To be sure, Sen. Rubio would be an outstanding candidate and would bring many built-in advantages to the ticket.

That said, I believe he has a fellow Floridian in Congress might be a more promising pick: Congressman Allen West from the state’s 22nd District.

As Gov. Romney and his supporters embarrass themselves and cheapen the process with their deliberately inaccurate and escalating attacks against Newt Gingrich — with Gingrich childishly flinging the same mud back at Romney — it’s clear to all Americans who cherish our rapidly fading traditional values that the GOP would be dramatically better served if statesmen like West or Rubio were at the top of the ticket instead of the current crop of candidates. Sadly, they are not.

That said, we can still insert both men and other true conservatives into the process.

For West, the fastest and best way would be for the GOP nominee to pick him as his running mate. Period.

No matter if that nominee is Romney or Gingrich, selecting West might be the only way they would make themselves remotely competitive with Obama, his surrogates in the mainstream media and the billion dollars Obama is salivating to dump on the Republicans’ standard-bearer.

More than that, imagine the mileage the Republican ticket would get if they continually volunteered to have West debate Obama instead of the Republican nominee.

To compare West’s heroic service to our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan during his 22-year military career to Obama’s community organizer days, to his years nodding his head to the vile and dangerous pronouncements of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and to his days learning at the feet of ultraviolent Weather Underground radicals Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn.

Imagine the reaction if West brought his college transcripts and challenged Obama to produce his. Imagine if others wished to compare West’s Bronze Star, three Meritorious Service medals and three Army Commendation medals with the drug paraphernalia from Obama’s experimental days.

Pure and simple, West is a proud conservative and a patriot. As he himself has said, “I have traded in my camouflage uniform for a suit, but the commitment to protect the people of the United States is still my mission.”

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