As a native hoosier, that would be great. But generally presidents don’t come from the Senate, they come from governors. So, I can see his strategy. How about Skillman replace Lugar? Although reality is Lugar, like Bayh was, has the job as long as he wants it.
Oh, I know the usual trajectory to the WH (although thanks to Zero, jumping from the Senate is now a possibility again after a half-century). The problem, however, is that if Pence is merely to use the Governorship as a stepping-stone, he’s short-changing the people of IN (and one would prefer they be 100% devoted to dealing with state issues, not using it as a resume enhancer for a short period — and that could be validly used against him in ‘12 by the Democrats).
One forgets, too, that when you shift from federal to state, you are also having to deal with a whole different set of more parochial issues. Sometimes federal officeholders flame out once they return to the state (my ex-Governor in TN was a prime example of that, he ended up an outright fiasco).
As for Skillman, does she have the heft to take on Lugar ? We need someone with the fire to take him out. He should’ve retired back around 1988 or 1994.