Shields and Brooks on the Veepstakes, Their Favorite Olympic Sports

It’s been way too long since we last sat in the NewsHour newsroom for the Doubleheader. But the good news is, syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks were reunited this week. I’m still filling in for Hari Sreenivasan, who will return to hosting the Doubleheader on Friday.

With lots to catch up on and one month until the Republican National Convention begins, we started by talking about former President George W. Bush’s absence from the stage in Tampa. Next up, we got Mark and David’s on the record predictions for the person presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney will select as his running mate.

David advised Romney to go “gray” and pick someone with seasoning: Sen. Rob Portman.

Mark said the first rule is “do no harm.” He also went with Portman because he thinks that selection would be more likely to deliver Ohio than choosing former Gov. Tim Pawlenty would bring home Minnesota for the Republicans.

For our “politics of sport” section, we checked in on our long-ago bets on the Belmont Stakes. My correct pick of Union Rags as the winner was balanced out by a foolish show bet on My Adonis, who came in eighth. Mark and David’s choice Unstoppable U came in sixth.

And how ’bout them Nats?

Cassie M. Chew shot and edited this video.

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