It’s unseemly to be an avowed candidate for the Veepstakes.
You can’t openly seek the position, especially before your party even selects its nominee.
Best to be silent and have others singing your praises.
It’s especially helpful when the news of your accomplishments comes from an independent source with whom you have no direct connection.
Governor Bob McDonnell got two such testimonies last week.
First, CNBC rated Virginia the “best state for business” in the entire nation.
It’s not the first time Virginia has received this kind of accolade.
You might recall when Doug Wilder was Governor in the early 1990’s Virginia was rated by Financial World magazine the “Best Managed State” in the country for two consecutive years.
Since Wilder’s time and the institution of the rainy day fund, Virginia always seems to rate high on almost all the independent rankings about state government management.
But the CNBC bouquet comes at a great time for McDonnell and provides a powerful one-liner for any Republican national candidate-
”Yes, my state is the best state for business in the country.”
But that was just the beginning of McDonnell’s week.
By Wednesday, a new poll from Quinnipiac University observed that McDonnell’s favorability ratings were in the top echelon of all the country’s governors.
He polls very strongly with his GOP base.
But what might be equally interesting to a Republican presidential nominee, McDonnell is rated very highly by independents in Virginia.
Isn’t this the formula Republicans are looking for:
Eexcite the base and attract independents?
In some ways, it’s way too early to be talking about this.
We have the 2011 Assembly races in Virginia in which McDonnell’s political capital will be put on the line in the GOP effort to retake the Senate.
We have an Assembly session where the proposed budget will be entirely McDonnell’s.
And we have an ongoing Senate race that will be both contentious and unpredictable- who knows how this will impact McDonnell.
Still, it’s hard to imagine that a Republican governor
In a battleground state, with high approval ratings, and a best for business designation, will not be
On everyone’s short list.
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