Vice President Bob McDonnell? Maybe!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Vice President Bob McDonnell? Maybe!

Now that Mitt Romney is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee—look, Ron Paul could make a sweeping comeback, and Newt is still in it!—everyone's focus now shifts to who he'll pick to be his running mate.

For local political analyst Chuck Thies, the answer seems relatively simple: Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. In a column published on NBC4's website today, Thies lays out the case for a McDonnell pick: he represents a constituency with whom Romney is weak (the South), he's carefully balanced his focus on the economy and the Virginia legislature's intense obsession with controversial social issues and he's played like he doesn't want any job other than the one he has. (The folks at conservative Virginia blog Bearing Drift certainly don't disagree with Thies.)

[WI_DEM]

1. In the end I think it will be Portman of Ohio.

[leftynyc]

7. I agree

McDonnell has too high a negative profile due to the ultrasound law. I don't think they're looking to make the gender gap worse.

[atreides1]

2. I don't think so

With the Romney campaign trying to over women...McDonnell would be the worst choice...he may have gotten the original pro-rape sonogram law toned down but it's still a sore point.

[AlinPA]

3. No, their VP nominee has to be an evangelical-fundamentalist or they will lose their base.

Brownback, Santorum, even Perry, Bachmann or Huckabee would work for them.

[grantcart]

4. Good chance that it will be a Republican Governor from a swing state.

McDonnell is a logical choice.

[polichick]

5. Hey Mitt, I DARE YOU! :)

[Proud Public Servant]

6. The only problem with McDonnell (for Romney)

Is that he's a Catholic. That would be a GOP ticket, in this day and age, with no Protestant on it. That seems unthinkable. But I do think he's a good choice otherwise, though he was a better one before teh vaginal ultrasound debacle; he remains teh popular governor of a swing state, and that can't hurt.