Gov. McDonnell's probe position makes him unlikely to balance Romney's ticket

>>> the history of this election year will be annoying. because in the future when people go to compare 2012 to other years, to look at like delegates and trends and who won what races and what order and who was still in the race when,the stuff we're doing now, this year about previous years in order to make sense of this year, when people do that about 2012 it will be super annoying to calculate this year in any broader understanding of what happens overtime in presidential politics . and that is because 2012 has to have this giant asterisks on the state of virginia . virginia was part of super tuesday, yesterday, but virginia republicans set rules this year so that only mitt romney and ron paul could be on the ballot. virginia 's election did count all of the 46 delegatesare being allocated on the basis of that race in virginia , but nobody considers virginia last night to have been a real race because there was only those two guys on the ballot. that is the kind of nuance that will be lost in translation in future years. therefore, the modern history of presidential politics will most list be a little off because virginia be misunderstood. you can see it from here. you can see it coming, but there is almost no way to stop it from happening. the asterisk will get edited out when people compile the date over multi year sets. still though, if we refuse tonight to start making that inevitable error already, an lonest map of who has won what this year looks like this. that is mitt romney states in green, rick santorum states in yellow, newt gingrich 's states in red. for the purpose of really understanding this, can we combine santorum and gingrich? so instead of yellow and red they are all orange. states won by mitt romney in green, states won by candidates other than mitt romney in orange. we are excludeing virginia because as i said it was a hot mess. if you are mitt romney or a republican that wants mitt romney will be the republican nominee, what is wrong with this map? aside from florida, which is its own thing and not part of the south , there is no south in this. none. you may be could put virginia in there but virginia was a mess. mitt romney has not won in the south and it's impossible to remember a nominee who didn't have support in the south . this what's hectle maps look like. look at the quadrant, redness, they win in the south . as the returns were coming in last night with romney losing georgia and tennessee and oklahoma, there was this glaring problem how does he compensate for being unable to win in the south ? a republican has to be able to win in the south . i asked essentially that question of chuck todd last night.

>> i think it may mean more pressure on romney to have to have a running mate that is of the south , a son of the south in some form or another. the perfect person, bob mcdonnell , a catholic evangelical catholic, if you will, would play well with -- this goes -- this has been chris' theory for some time, a perception romney has a southern problem with some evangelicals that he has to have somebody who will speak to them. who will speak to them directly and say no, don't worry about mitt romney i got him.

>> this is how people think about ticket balancing , right, and the vice presidential selection. mitt romney hey have things going for him but can't seem to win in the south so he needs a guy from the south on the ticket why not bob mcdonnell , he made clear he wants the job. today, how did bob mcdonnell make clear he wants the vice presidential job? he signed the ultrasound bill today. governor ultrasound made it official today. after weeks of protests, after dozens of arrests, after tons of national attention, after denying this was ever part of his agenda in the first place, after sitting on it for days after the legislature passed it raising the prospect he might not sign it, virginia governor bob "ultrasound" mcdonnell decided to keep the nickname. virginia women will be forced by the state to undergo and to pay for a procedure that is not medically necessary, that is mandated by mr. mcdonnell's state government , that your doctor has no choice about and you have to undergo against your will. the governor justified the government-mandated medical procedure by saying it's necessary to determine the gestational age of the fetus before an abortion is allowed. in most case you have to do an ultrasound to make that determination. but for the majority of abortions, the jelly on the belly abdominal ultrasound mandated by the bill will not help determine gestational age . the only kind is this kind, the internal trans vaginal probe kind, made the vp next to his name stand not so much for vice president anymore as vaginal probe. earlier version of the bill supported by the governor would have mandated a vaginal probe ultrasound. the amended version of the bill he signed mandates the other kind of ultrasound but it says if that ultrasound doesn't help determine the gestational age , than in most cases it won't, the the internal vaginal probe ultrasound. if she says no to the vaginal probe one, is she still allowed to have an abortion in virginia ? unclear. we asked the governor's office if the state government isn't still effectively mandating vaginal ultrasounds by playing doctor , by forcing the medically unnecessary procedures to determine information that can only be obtained up and through your genitals. by order of the state. we have had no answer from the governor's office on that yet. but the governor has signed the bill in law as of today saying in a statement he released on the matter the whole reason he's doing this is to "help the mother." what do you think american women? this is the kind of help you would like? it would seem that governor ultrasound has insured he is not going to be the republican party 's vice presidential pick no matter how much help mitt romney might need in the south . but you know, then again who knows. there seems to be two trains of thought in republican politics. the bob mcdonnells of the world who are fall steam ahead on forced ultrasounds, government mandated medical procedures, even as they want to be seen as small government guys, rick santorum brought up his opposition to expanded contraception coverage last night during the victory speech, nobody asked him about it, he brought it up on his own. there is a bob mcdonnell - rick santorum issue of thinking about it. maybe that is what republicans want to hear. on the other hand, the anti-contraception amendment in the senate, remember the blunt-rubio amendment, after senators lost the vote last week the republicans said they would press on, they would bring it up in the house, keep at it in the senate. this week they are caving on that. roy blunt , the sponsor of the blunt-rubio amendment, vowed when he lost the first anti-contraception vote that "this fight is not over" he would work "in both chambers of congress on continuing to fight for the anti-contraception bill" that was his stance last week. this week he's telling talking points memo i think we have as many votes as there were to get on that. now he's defending the republicans are shelving the bill when she said they would keep fighting for it. in the house where john boehner said he would keep on fighting for it. he would keep up the fight on the anti-contraception bill that failed in the senate and house, where he said they would bring it up, they are not bringing it up. they are not bringing it up in the house any time soon, jeff flake who is running for senate telling politico "we have a lot else on our plate."

>> lisa murkowsky is repudiating her vote. she cast it last week, she wouldn't do it again after talking to women who told her what they thought. linda lingle is running for senate in hawaii, she did a fund-raiser with roy blunt personally, but now telling no, are you kidding, don't mistake me. most of the republican party is in full retreat on the anti-contraception by guys like rick santorum and governor ultrasound think it's the