From: www.politico.com

If former Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell is elected governor Tuesday, could he be President Barack Obama's opponent in 2012? Politics Daily's Jill Lawrence thinks so. Lawrence: "Virginia's new status as a presidential swing state, having gone Democratic last year after a 44-year GOP run, means whoever is governor will now assume a key role in national elections. At the very least a 2012 GOP nominee would rely on a Gov. McDonnell to help him or her carry the state. "John Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College and a former Republican aide on Capitol Hill, went further in an e-mail to me -- calling McDonnell 'as plausible as anyone else' for president or vice president in 2012. A more likely scenario might be 2016. Virginia has a one-term limit, so McDonnell would be a former governor as of January 2014 -- just in time to make some money and ponder his future. "McDonnell looks like a casting director's notion of a politician. His positions are uncompromising in some respects -- no new taxes, no abortions in cases of rape or incest. But he is affable and smooth and usually equipped with soothing answers for those who disagree with him. The man doesn't flail or flounder in public. Often that's because he is falling back on boilerplate. You might not like or believe his answer to any given question, but that's his story and he's sticking to it -- and you have to admire that in a candidate."

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