Cruz and McDonnell

So we have the two best posts in the entire land on the merits of these two reasonable hopes for the Republican future.

John is right that Cruz is a highly accomplished legal scholar and, I can add, a former student of Robby George that Robby is bragging about. He will be a key piece of evidence a Republican officeholder can be a conservative and an intellectual. He actually would be the perfect running mate for Romney, but of course nobody could say it was his time. It’s easy to see why the Tea Party supported him, but his wisdom and judgment have roots that predate that movement by a lot.

McDonnell has been a good and very classy governor of Virginia. Pete is right that he has the right mixture of social and economic content in his message, and he’s a cagey campaigner. But, unlike Cruz, he’s not that smart. I like the fact that he’s a white, CATHOLIC guy from Virginia. But he still comes off as a standard white-guy Virginia Republican. He’d be okay as a VP choice, surely better than Portman or Pawlenty. But not only is he no Cruz, he’s no Jindal. A Romney victory depends on Mitt looking much more competent than Obama.