When Gov. Bob McDonnell is mentioned as a potential running mate for the Republican ticket in 2012, he’s invariably described in the same fashion: popular, attractive and leader of a state critical to President Obama’s re-election bid. And McDonnell has positioned himself to be a part of the conversation. At a Republican gathering in New Hampshire Monday, McDonnell blasted Obama while skirting questions about the GOP presidential hopefuls and Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s poor debate performance. McDonnell also invited Mitt Romney and the rest of the field to visit Virginia after accommodating his friend Perry earlier this month.
McDonnell continues to play coy when asked the question — “You don’t run for vice president, that’s up to the presidential nominee. I’m not thinking about it,” he said during an appearance on WTOP the morning after his New Hampshire speech — but he also told Politico last month that he was “very interested” in the job.
“He would make a lot of sense in that role,” said New Hampshire House Speaker Bill O’Brien, a Republican. “His presence and ability to clearly state what the issues are, articulate a Republican vision for the future, and on a personal level, I found him to be an easy person to talk with.
“We’re used to seeing presidential candidates come through and those are things we look for,” O’Brien said. “He was exhibiting all of that.”
McDonnell’s ascension to chairman of the Republican Governors Association provides a platform to stump around the country, as he did last year as vice chairman to help in gubernatorial elections, and his proximity to the nation’s capital allows him to take pot shots at the Washington political culture without sounding trite.
But what McDonnell doesn’t have on his side is history. If Romney and Perry are the front-runners heading into 2012, it puts McDonnell at a disadvantage, even as he publicly states he would entertain the idea. Not since 1948, when Republican nominee Thomas Dewey tapped California Gov. Earl Warren as his running mate, have two governors appeared together on the ballot.
Nor do presidential nominees typically choose vice presidents with little experience. For all the praise, McDonnell is still just 21 months into his first — and only — term as governor.
“Is he ready for prime time on the national stage? One doesn’t know until you’re out there,” said Joel Goldstein, a St. Louis University law professor and author of “The Modern American Vice Presidency: The Transformation of a Political Institution.” “He can make speeches in New Hampshire and invite people into Virginia, but he’s a bit of an unknown.”
It’s the same reason, Goldstein said, that Obama ultimately passed over then-Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine as his running mate on the 2008 Democratic ticket.
For all their political differences, Kaine, like McDonnell, was popular, attractive and leading an important state. But the lack of experience came into play, which is why Obama picked then-Sen. Joe Biden to be his No. 2, and Kaine got a phone call informing him he narrowly missed out.
That doesn’t mean a McDonnell VP nod is out of the question. Governors often choose Washington veterans to help balance the ticket and bring foreign policy experience, but that thinking could fall out of favor in a party catering to a Tea Party-infused base skeptical of D.C. insiders.
“History can be a guide. It can also be a trap,” Goldstein said. “Patterns do get broken. When [Bill] Clinton picked [Al] Gore, two young centrists from the South, that was perceived as a reinforcing selection, not ticket balance in a traditional way, so that was a surprise.”
For McDonnell’s part, he is keeping his options open by withholding his endorsement and continuing to insist he’s focused on his job as governor.
“We’re talking about a hypothetical phone call months from now from a candidate that has yet to be chosen,” spokesman Tucker Martin said.
