Politics & Government
McDonnell Unlikely Vice President Choice For Romney
Gov. Bob McDonnell told WTOP that he has not been vetted by the Mitt Romney campaign for vice president, but Fredericksburg Patch blogger Arnold Smithson predicted this in March.
Correction: The NBC/Marist poll results were incorrect in an earlier version of this story. The correct results are not in the article.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is unlikely to be the vice president choice of Mitt Romney, who secured the GOP nomination Tuesday night after taking the Texas primary.
McDonnell was on WTOP Radio Tuesday when he said that the Romney campaign has not vetted him for the vice president spot. Although that doesn't mean McDonnell is completely ruled out, he told WTOP that he wouldn't accept the offer if Romney came to him. McDonnell said he wants to finish his term, which ends in January 2014.
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An NBC/Marist poll last week showed Obama with a 4-point lead over Romney in Virginia. The poll asked how Obama would do in Virginia in a match-up between the Obama/Biden ticket and Romney and McDonnell as a team. The poll said Obama would get 46 percent of the vote, and Romney 44 percent of the vote.
because of what happened during the Virginia General Assembly session; too much focus on social issues, that divided the state, and not enough on McDonnell's job creation plans. , Smithson said the damage was already done.
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"At the end of the day, the VA legislature can recover from this, but Governor McDonnell's failure to lead and keep the focus on job creation combined with his mishandling of the abortion controversy will probably cost him a shot at the vice-presidential nomination," Smithson wrote. "As Romney continues his march toward the top of the ticket, there are too many other choices. If he wants a Southern swing state governor Marco Rubio would be better, and if he wants someone with a history of job creation and strong budgetary management Chris Christy would be better, and if he wants an innovative, strong conservative, well there are countless better choices there. This was a costly lesson in national politics for Gov. McDonnell, and hopefully one he can learn from before 2016 comes around."
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