Two Virginians for President in 2008?

In response to this post by Ann Althouse, I speculated (in the comments) that Governor Mark Warner seemed the likeliest nominee of the Democratic Party for President in 2008 and that I couldn't even venture a guess about who the Republican nominee might be.

Victoria offered her view that Senator George Allen, also of Virginia, could be the GOP standard bearer.

That got me thinking:

It would be interesting if two Virginians ended up with the nominations of their respective parties in the 2008 presidential race.

The last time I think that happened was 1920 when two Ohioans, Warren Harding and James Cox, were the Republican and Democratic nominees, respectively.

That's doubly interesting because Ohio and Virginia both claim to have had the most presidents come from their states. A new Virginian would break the tie.

In the past, Virginia was a natural breeding ground for presidents. Joseph Ellis points out that in the early years of the country's history, "Virginia contained one-fifth of the nation's total population and generated one-third of its commerce" [Founding Brothers, p.79]. Virginia was to the early United States what California is to the US of today. (California is so populace that it has 55 of the 435 seats in the US House of Representatives. Were it spun off as a separate country, it would have the sixth largest economy in the world, is to our country today)

Virginia is not nearly so important or imposing today, of course. But because it combines both the old South and the liberal proneness of the highly government-dependent DC suburbs in the north, it's possible that it could produce nominees for both parties.