Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell admitted Tuesday that President Obama's campaign has a stronger organizational capacity in the state of Virginia than Mitt Romney.

"The ground game's not there yet," McDonnell said Tuesday in an editorial board meeting with the Washington Examiner.

McDonnell, who campaigned in Portsmouth with Romney last week, said the former Massachusetts governor still has time to catch up with the Obama campaign's ground game in the battleground state that will be critical in determining the election this fall.

The Virginia governor suggested that Romney has reached a stage in the campaign where the Republican party has coalesced around him after a divisive primary season and now has the time and resources to build up his organization in the state which Obama won in 2008.

"He's still in that healing, unifying the party stage," McDonnell said of Romney. "Now he'll begin building the ground game."

McDonnell indicated to the editorial board that he does not envision a future career path for himself in the U.S. Senate, like two recent Virginia governors - George Allen and Mark Warner - who transitioned to Capitol Hill after their one-term governorships.

Looking to the future, McDonnell said he is not being vetted by the Romney campaign nor has been asked to partake in the vetting process at this time. He blamed the VP speculation on Romney, who suggested at a Virginia Beach fundraiser a year ago that McDonnell might be a good pick for the No. 2 spot along with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Asked whether he is brushing up on his national security and foreign policy issues, McDonnell, who served in the military, laughed at the reporters' innovative way to ask whether he's eying the VP spot.

"That's another way of asking the question," McDonnell said to laughter before noting his international travel in the past year and his interest in foreign affairs. "Because it's a presidential year, I do find myself reading a little bit more about the national, the security issues in particularly in the Mideast."

"Nice try, that was really good," McDonnell added.