The speculation regarding the eventual Republican vice-presidential candidate has begun. Will it be Marco Rubio, the upstart senator from Florida? Or perhaps New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez? Or how about Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, former director of the Office of Management and Budget? The interest in the Republican veepstakes seems more intense than usual this year because of a general sense of drabness regarding presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and the prevailing notion that Republicans have “settled” on a nominee they aren’t really excited about, and thus need to add some spice at the bottom of the ticket.

But such furor misses the central story in politics today: that Romney may indeed be the man of our national moment. America is looking for someone who can articulate a optimistic yet viable vision for the future, and who can start to turn things around: someone who can take us out of our national funk — which Washington has not been making better, but worse — and get us back on track, and then some.

In the mid-term elections of 2010, the electorate was unhappy, and demanded change. Even groups who had traditionally voted Democratic — e.g., women — gave the GOP a try. But there’s only so much you can change when the president’s not on the ballot. And in 2012, the causes of discontent (most notably, unemployment and economic uncertainty), some of which are the direct result of the current president and his policies, remain. With this and some of the other issues (including religious liberty) on the table, this election could be bigger than 1980, when another sunny Republican took on a beleaguered Democratic incumbent — just the right man with just the right skill set to be a transformational leader.