The last two Vice-Presidents were from two states with the minimum allocation (3) of electoral votes -- Wyoming (Cheney) and Delaware (Biden). Neither was from a state that anyone thought in doubt in the Presidential election.
Dubya chose Cheney for his alleged skills as an administrator.
Obama chose Biden because Biden was the poorest Democrat in the Senate -- someone with no possibility of any scandals for personal gain.
Thune? What does he have to offer?
Thune is a "safe" pick; he won't make mistakes and he's fairly well vetted. He "looks" Presidential, and he's acceptable to the whole of the GOP.
Thune may be boring, but he's not the kind of guy who'll be the World's Loosest Cannon. He'll be message-disciplined and if he doesn't help a whole lot, he won't do any harm.
That's the same rationale that led to Paul Ryan getting the VP nomination.
The problem with Paul Ryan was that he was a sitting Congressman. He had never won a statewide election, as is typical of a Congressional Representative. As the Presidential election faltered, Ryan reverted to defending his Congressional seat. Thune has no such problem. He would not be another Paul Ryan. If he can 'run' for his Senate seat against a disorganized South Dakota Democratic Party he will be able to run for both he Presidency and the Vice-Presidency.
Ryan helped Romney in that he quieted the unhappiness of the far-right conservatives, who look upon Ryan as one of their "movement". While Ryan was, indeed, only a Representative, he was a part of the GOP leadership in the House and he cut a far, far higher profile then would, say, Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA). Solid guys with experience like Thune (LBJ, HHH, Muskie, Mondale, Bush, Bentsen, Gore, even Cheney) HELP a ticket. "Bold" and "grundbreaking" picks (Agnew, LeMay, Eagleton, Ferraro, Quayle, Palin) always seem to hurt a ticket.
One reason for that is that the "bold, groundbreaking" guys and gals tend to not e team players, and when they go off on their own and screw up, it reflects badly on the guy at the top that picked that person. It's why McCain and Mondale ran off the rails far more then what they had to. It's why McGovern got spanked so bad; his first, and most important "people" decision was to put a guy with depression who took electroshock treatments a heartbeat away from the red button. It's why Ike stuck with Nixon in 1952; he knew when the Secret Fund story broke that he would lose the election if he had to replace Nixon.
It's even worse when the person who screws up is a woman or a minority group member. That just (A) triggers existing prejudices in people that they may have been keeping at bay and (B) open the guy at the top to a charge of pandering when making major appointments. There are far worse things people can call someont other than an empty suit.
