Our friend Bill Kristol seemed distraught after the GOP debate Thursday evening, about to break into Chris Christie’s office, open the window and threaten to jump from it if the Big One did not run for president. But we who share his emotions and love for the governor may still wonder why so many Republicans unhappy with their options are fixed upon Christie alone. Why not his classmate here in Virginia, who was elected governor on the same day that he was, and has proven just as successful, if quieter?
While confrontational Chris has gone viral with dozens of videos, Bob McDonnell has been hiding his light under bushels. But he shouldn’t do so much longer. He is Chris Christie, just blonder and thinner.
So — what about Bob?
Like Christie, McDonnell has many things Perry and Romney are lacking, but he possesses none of their flaws. He is not some holdover from an earlier age. He was elected in 2009, in the first wave of the pushback against Obama and big-government spending, and he has played an active part in that struggle.
McDonnell is from a large, diverse state, part Old South and part metro corridor, with a big high-tech corridor, a large rural area, small towns and suburbs, and a proximity to the national capital that draws people from all parts of the world. Virginia moves back and forth between the parties, but it hews to the more or less centrist variety, of which he is one in some ways.
He is no distinct regional type, and he would not raise hackles anywhere. He is a pro-life conservative who plays well in the suburbs. He never pushed through a precursor to Obamacare, nor has he gone back and forth on social (or indeed any) issues. His state has no border with Mexico, and he never cruelly forced a vaccine upon innocent children, (as Michele Bachmann might put it). He unites the three legs of the Reaganesque grand coalition. Like Christie, Marco Rubio and a number of others, he unites the Tea Party movement and the establishment, whereas Romney and Perry pull them apart.
In The Weekly Standard a few weeks ago, Mark Hemingway outlined the governor’s impressive record. Quinnipiac gives him an approval rating of 61 percent, tied with New York’s Andrew Cuomo for the best in the nation. His approval rating among blacks is in positive numbers. Virginia was named best state for business in the CNBC rankings; last year, it was second to Texas. Its unemployment rate is 6.1 percent, three points lower than the national average. Though a solid conservative, he works well with Democrats, who control the state Senate. His last budget passed unanimously, as did his education reform bill. Since he took office, his state went from a $4 billion deficit to surplus of $545 million. The contrast with Obama could not be clearer.
Hemingway also writes of his friendship with Perry, with whom he has a friendly Race to the Top competition, and whose job as chairman of the Republican Governors’ Association he took over when Perry resigned. But if Perry drops out (and Christie stays out), it leaves the field to Romney, the unloved front-runner whom nobody wants much, and whom Perry appears to dislike. He could do worse than pull out and throw his support to his friend and successor.
Republicans still hoping for someone different and better to enter the race could do much worse than ponder the question: What about Bob?
Examiner Columnist Noemie Emery is contributing editor to The Weekly Standard and author of “Great Expectations: The Troubled Lives of Political Families.”
