Bob McDonnell: 'A Little Late' To Advise Mitt Romney To Tone It Down

Gov. Bob McDonnell, appearing outside the White House after a meeting between the governors and the president, did yeomen's work in expressing his lack of concern over the general vitriol in the Republican primary.

The Virginia Republican and Mitt Romney supporter explained, on several occasions, that a long primary process wasn't necessarily a negative one. He pointed to Barack Obama's drag-out fight against Hillary Clinton in 2008 as evidence.

But when pushed about the repeated violations of Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment -- much of it undertaken by Romney's super PAC -- he acknowledged that things have turned a touch nasty. Do you think they should tone it down a little bit, Politico's Glenn Thrush asked, would that be advice you would give to Governor Romney?

"It would be a little late for that advice," said McDonnell. "[But] yeah, I would love to see it be more positive. People want to be uplifted. We are coming out of the worst downturn in the economy since the great depression. People are hurting. Tens of millions of people are unemployed or underemployed. They don't want to hear about excuses, they don't want to hear about delays. They don't want more finger-pointing. They want results and they want to have somebody be positive and I would like to see more than that."