Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump could imagine Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., as a possible running mate, but Corker evidently could not.
Hours after he visited Trump, his business associates and family in New York Tuesday and then appeared with him at a rally in Raleigh, N.C., the former Chattanooga mayor informed Trump he was removing his name from consideration.
"The way I presented it was, look, a person like me is much suited to serve in other ways," Corker told the Times Free Press. "We talked about in each of the meetings what being a vice presidential candidate meant."
While we believe the Volunteer State's junior senator could have served well as Trump's vice president, and that his status as a potential running mate wouldn't hurt him if Trump loses in November, we understand his desire to use his talents "in other ways."
Corker, the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee chairman, has found a niche in globe-trotting in an effort both to put eyes on the situations with which he deals in the Senate and to find practical solutions to ongoing problems such as ending human trafficking.
As such, a post as secretary of state in a potential Trump cabinet would be a much better fit for the hands-on former Chattanooga businessman.
"I just viewed myself to do other kinds of things," he said. "[A]t some point, if serving in an administration, that became an opportunity, there are just better ways for me to serve than being a candidate for vice president. It's far more political. You know me, I try to focus more on substance."
Before Trump's clinching of the nomination, Corker didn't join the never-Trump movement and hinted a businessman in the White House might not be so bad.
With the candidate in North Carolina Tuesday, he carved up the stereotype the left has attempted to make of the presumptive nominee.
"So many times in these campaigns people become caricatures of what the media makes them," Corker said. "And all too often after a race is over, people realize they never knew the person.
"Somebody once told me it's not who you know in life, it's how you know them," he said. "And I had the incredible privilege today to spend time with this man, to spend time with his family and to spend time with those who know him so well. [T]he reason you love him so much is because he loves you. He loves you, and he wants the best for you."