Dick Cheney says picking Sarah Palin was the wrong choice four years ago, but he did call her “attractive.”

"That one, I don't think was well handled,” Cheney told ABC of the 2008 veep pick.  "I like Governor Palin,” he said. “I've met her. I know her. She - attractive candidate. But based on her background, she'd only been governor for, what, two years. I don't think she passed that test...of being ready to take over. And I think that was a mistake." (H/T: Political Wire.)

JINDAL: Bobby Jindal was sounding very veep with some red meat, NBC’s Jamie Novogrod reported. “It was ‘Hope and Change’ four years ago,” Jindal said, referring to Obama’s 2008 campaign.  “Now it’s ‘Divide and Blame.’  Everything is somebody else’s fault.”

PAWLENTY: Tim Pawlenty gets cute again coining another punny phrase. He accused President Obama of being “all foam and no beer,” NBC’s Carrie Dann reported. Remember “ObamneyCare”? And he gave a full endorsement to Chick-Fil-A.

PORTMAN: Rob Portman is feeling the pressure to swing Ohio in Romney’s favor, NBC’s Andrew Rafferty reported.

RYAN: Over the weekend, NBC’s Alex Moe reported, Paul Ryan said he thinks Romney can win Wisconsin. 

SPRINGFIELD, VA -- Sen. John Thune has some advice for Mitt Romney: Be Yourself.

The South Dakota senator told NBC News that the Romney he knows does not always come across on the campaign trail, and that may be why voters are having a tough time relating to the presumptive Republican nominee.

"I've traveled with him in Iowa and been on the bus with his family and him, and they're just incredible, wonderful, normal people," Thune said. "And that's a side of him that I hope voters in this country get an opportunity to see.  And I think really he just needs to be himself."

Thune was here today to address Romney supporters and volunteers at victory office opening. On Thursday, he traveled to Virginia Beach to do the same, joining a slew of other Romney surrogates who are making similar campaign stops in battleground states throughout the country this weekend.

Thune, who himself had considered entering the presidential race, said that the more Americans get to see Romney, the more they will be able to relate to him beyond simply being a former businessman and governor.

"I think often times in politics -- you have tendency to -- people sort of put you in a bubble," he said. "And I think the more that he [Romney] gets a chance to get out in front of the American people, interact with them, in a way that I've had an opportunity to interact with him, they're going to see someone, who I think they're going to find is an incredibly, not only strong leader for our country, but someone that they really will believe in and can have great trust will take this country in the right direction."

Much has been of late about Thune's own political future.  He is considered to be a top contender to be chosen as Romney's vice president. Though he declined to say whether or not he is being vetted, he said he does not expect Romney to ask him to join the ticket. But he added "any time you get a chance to serve your country and if you're really serious about public life obviously you don't rule  options out."

And if VP is not in the cards for him, speculation is rampant that he could be next in line to become Republicans' leader in the Senate. If that is in the cards, he is confident he'll have a Republican to work with in the White House.

"It's always hard when the lights go on, and you know...People have a tendency to perhaps be a little bit more conscious of things that they say, and do when you're in public life, said Thune. "But I will say this: If the American people can see what I've seen in Mitt Romney who out on the campaign trail is very relaxed, someone very comfortable in his own skin, someone who has a real sense of purpose of what he want to do for this country. It's a quality that I think the American people are really going to be drawn to. And I think they're going to see that between now and November, and I think they're starting to see that already."

Before there was the controversial Sarah Palin pick in 2008, there was Thomas Eagleton, George McGovern’s ill-fated selection in 1972. The Eagleton affair, in fact, ultimately changed how vice-presidential running mates are now made.

With political watchers on veepstakes alert for Mitt Romney’s eventual VP pick, below a mini-documentary on the Eagleton affair.

A little backstory: When McGovern arrived at the Democratic convention in Miami during the summer of '72, his campaign priority was to fend off rival Hubert Humphrey's last-ditch attempt to win the nomination through an obscure rule change. Picking a running mate was relegated to the backburner. After officially gaining the nod, McGovern was left with only an hour and a half to choose a No. 2 -- and he hastily settled on Sen. Thomas Eagleton (D-MO), a man with whom McGovern had only spoken twice.

"Vetting" the candidate was an afterthought, a decision that came to exemplify VP selection gone bad.  

CORALVILLE, Iowa -- “The Bob brigade” kicked off a weekend of high profile surrogate events for Mitt Romney in battleground states across the country as the GOP nominee is overseas.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal spoke to voters in the swing state of Iowa on Thursday, calling President Obama a good, “family man,” while arguing his policies are failing and it’s time for a new president in the White House.

“You’re probably wondering why’s a guy from Virginia out here in Iowa. But Iowa and Virginia have a lot in common,” McDonnell told employees at Per Mar Security in Davenport early this morning. “Both are swing states, you know the president won big in both of our states last time, but the polls are a dead even heat now. So what happens in Virginia, what happens in Iowa could determine who’s going to be the next president of the United States.”

The two prominent GOP governors -- who have been rumored as potential vice presidential picks for Romney -- criticized Obama for his handling of the economy and not creating jobs.

“You know it's bad when the Europeans are giving us advice about too much spending and too much borrowing. That's like the town drunk telling you you've got a drinking problem,” Jindal told the crowd inside the Johnston County GOP Victory office. “You know it's bad when the Europeans are saying ‘Americans, you are spending and borrowing too much. Don't bother lecturing us about our problems.'"

Jindal came to Romney's additional defense in an afternoon conference call, when he was asked about a kerfuffle over Romney's assessment of London's preparation for the Olympics.

"We're not worried about overseas headlines, we're worried about voters here at home in America," Jindal told reporters.

Standing in front of a “191” poster at the first two events today, McDonnell pointed out that is the number of days since President Obama met with his jobs council. In that amount of time, the Virginia governor said, the president has had time to host numerous fundraisers and go golfing.

Both McDonnell and Jindal, whose trip today marks the first time they’ve stumped in Iowa for Romney, made a few phone calls to Republican super voters in the area following their speeches here.

While McDonnell heads back to the Old Dominion State, Jindal will continue heading West -- making two more stops today in the Hawkeye State on behalf of Romney, in Newton and West Des Moines.

Garrett Haake on First Read: “Mitt Romney said Wednesday that more restrictive gun laws would likely not have prevented last week's deadly mass shooting at a Colorado Cineplex, and argued that it would take Americans changing their hearts, not their legislation, to prevent similar future attacks.”

The Boston Globe on NBC’s Brian Williams’ interview with Romney: “Mitt Romney, responding to the deadly shooting rampage in Aurora, Colo., asserted Wednesday that the United States does not need stricter gun laws, saying they could not have stopped the killing of a dozen people by a lone gunman at a movie theater.”

The Wall Street Journal: “Mitt Romney rejected the idea that tougher gun laws could have prevented the deadly rampage in Aurora, Colo., saying in an interview Tuesday that a legislative remedy would not thwart people who want to cause harm.”

“Dan Gross -- president of the pro-gun control Brady Campaign -- tells The New Yorker that Governor Romney did more for Brady's cause than President Obama,” GOP 12 writes. But that was then… Nowadays: "Romney has certainly gone further out of his way to pander to the gun lobby during the election.”

“The Telegraph, which refused to identify the speaker, released a statement late Wednesday in which it stood by the accuracy of its story,” the New York Daily News writes. “Romney’s team, which questioned other recent news reports, including a Boston Globe investigation into the candidate’s time at Bain Capital, did not immediately demand a retraction.”

The Hill: “Rough start for Romney foreign trip.”

Charles Krauthammer says the answer to all of Romney’s problems is to show “he’s human”: "Romney has the ultimate edge,” he told FOX. “There's no way the economy will turn around between now and the election day; whereas, it's not inconceivable -- it's likely, actually -- that Romney can change the perception of him as a stiff, stolid, plutocrat who cares nothing. All he has to do is show up in the debates that he's human.... the minute Romney does, he'll win the election." (H/t: GOP 12.)

Sheldon Adelson might meet up with Romney for a fundraiser in Israel.

Actor Robert Duvall will host a fundraiser for Romney Sept. 6 at his home in Virginia. Here’s the invitation, obtained by National Journal.

AYOTTE: Kelly Ayotte makes The Hill’s 50 Most Beautiful list.

CHRISTIE: Cross him off the veepstakes? First, NBC’s Jamie Gangel reported that Christie would be keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention, now he says he’s open to a 2016 presidential bid: "If there's an opportunity for me to serve in another capacity and I think I have something to add to the mix, I don't think I'd back away from it,” he told AP.

PORTMAN: “Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) on Wednesday introduced a bill aimed at ending the threat of a government shutdown once and for all,” The Hill writes. “The bill would automatically extend government spending at current levels for 120 days when funding expires. If Congress continues to fail to act, spending would be cut by 1 percent across the board every 90 days.”

“Prospective VP candidate for Mitt Romney, Rob Portman, is under criticism by Democrats for advice to George W. Bush that resulted in damaging the U.S. steel industry. His advice is linked to sales declines and job losses. His defense is that Bush did better for steel than Clinton,” the Washington Examiner writes.

CHRISTIE: "New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed into law on Monday a bill that aims to stabilize the largest solar market in the United States, which has suffered from a sharp decline in demand for renewable energy credit and credit prices. The Republican governor signed S-1925, a bipartisan bill that easily passed in both houses of the state legislature," Reuters reports.

PORTMAN: The New Jersey Star Ledger: "Democrats have made no secret of how they would skewer Ohio Sen. Rob Portman if Mitt Romney puts him on the ticket: by tying the former White House budget guru to former President George W. Bush and his controversial economic policies. That’s the broad-brush. But there’s one particularly potent line of attack top Democratic strategists are itching to launch. As Bush’s top trade negotiator in 2005, Portman urged the president not to impose restrictions on cheap Chinese steel imports, causing a drop in sales and job losses for the U.S. steel industry. And that could resonate with voters at a time they’re worried about the economic threat from China and American jobs being shipped overseas."

RUBIO: New York Magazine: "Recently, Republican Senator and future Presidential Timber Marco Rubio compared a speech by President Obama to that of a ‘left-wing 3rd world leader.’ It’s not the first time Rubio has drawn upon the comparison. Last year, he described an Obama speech advocating the cloture of a small number of upper-bracket tax deductions as “the kind of language you’d expect from the leader of a Third World Country.” At other times, he’s called Obama’s arguments “more appropriate for some left-wing strong man than for the president of the United States.” It is no longer terribly newsworthy for even the most respectable Republicans to equate Obama’s policies with dictatorships. But Rubio appears to be fixated on a particular kind of dictator, the Third World strongman. What could explain this odd fixation? Rubio’s parents, of course, emigrated from Cuba. His father first left in the waning days of the Batista regime, but some members of his family returned and then fled when Fidel Castro took power. Rubio inaccurately represented his family as having fled Castro, but in his defense, it seems likely that he grew up believing the rise of Castro precipitated their arrival in America, or at least the revolution loomed large in their story of how they could never return to their homeland."

“[O]ne of the lasting legacies of Mr. McGovern’s choice of Mr. Eagleton — and the tumult it caused in his campaign — is the microscopic examination of the lives and records of potential vice-presidential candidates, a ritual involving teams of lawyers and consultants and reams of medical and financial records that the candidates are obligated to produce,” the New York Times writes. “Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, is now engaged in that vetting process. And while he is renowned for his love of data, as well as his caution, every presidential candidate since Mr. McGovern has had the same goal in the vice-presidential search: no surprises.”

AYOTTE: A look at how Ayotte became NH’s Attorney General from The Boston Globe: “In 2002, Kelly Ayotte was a 34-year-old state prosecutor when she was called into the office of Craig Benson, the newly elected governor. Benson, a Republican, told her he needed a legal counsel, a job Ayotte appeared keen to land. At the close of the interview, though, Ayotte concluded on an unexpected note. ‘I would love to be your legal counsel,’ she told Benson. ‘But I would really like to be your attorney general.’ ‘I liked her aggressiveness,’ Benson recalled this week. He appointed Ayotte legal counsel, and a year and a half later made her the state’s first female attorney general when the man he had named to the post stepped down amid a scandal.”

CHRISTIE: Yesterday, the New Jersey governor said that the country’s “got enough gun laws now.”  From the Star Ledger: “In the wake of the shooting massacre in Aurora, Colo., Gov. Chris Christie today said New Jersey's gun laws are sufficient, but took a veiled swipe at Democrats who called for stronger controls.”

“New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and the ‘Jersey comeback’ he admiringly speaks of has hit a snag -- last month, New Jersey's unemployment rate hit a two-year high of 9.6%,” GOP 12 writes. “That puts it in the inglorious company of California, Nevada, and Rhode Island, which are the only states with a worse unemployment rate.”

HUCKABEE: Mike Huckabee yesterday on his radio show drew a line between the shooter in Colorado and God: "We don't have a crime problem, or a gun problem, or even a violence problem. What we have is a sin problem. And since we've ordered God out of our schools and communities; the military and public conversations, you know we really shouldn't act so surprised when all hell breaks loose." (H/T: GOP 12.)

PAWLENTY: “The recovery, if there is one, is tepid and anemic,” he told Hot Air today. And former Pawlenty spokes Brian McClung remembers the ‘08 saga of TPaw’s brush with VP fame on a Minnesota radio. Though not direct, he infers that Gov. Pawlenty would say yes if asked to be VP.

PORTMAN: The Christian Science Monitor: “It's all about Ohio: Could Rob Portman boost Romney's chances?” From the story: “[Senator Portman] is worth three to five points in Ohio,” says Ohio GOP chairman Bob Bennett, who has been talking up his state’s junior senator with Romney. “Independents like Portman. And Democrats don’t get mad at him.”

Jane Portman was recently profiled by Kentucky’s WCPO, and when asked about her family’s future said, "We are living our lives as though Rob would be remaining in the Senate.  We're very happy with that approach, just carrying on."

RYAN: Could adding the Wisconsin Congressman help Romney win the state? A look from the Daily Caller here.

NBC’s Andrew Rafferty and Alex Moe contributed to this report.