The biggest factor that may help him is how much damage Obama does and the “anyone but Obama” factor by election time. I agree there could be blowback to the “slick, rockstar, TOTUS” route, just so we don’t settle for another good ol boy like Carter.

As for MN, not sure what we have in the water here but I’ll continue to drink bottled water to be safe. DFL – Dumb F**** Liberals LOL. Minnesota Nice……

Though, to give Pawlenty credit, at least he isn’t announcing his candidacy right out of the gate, as Romney and Huckabee did.

Tim Pawlenty Gets Called Up to the Major Leagues

Few political figures have rolled out political action committees to greater fanfare than Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty did today. Pawlenty, whose term ends in January 2011, seemed to be punching above his weight today – featured on Drudge, a big profile on Politico, lots of bloggers on conference calls today. It’s no secret that I liked Patrick Hynes, Liz Mair, Mindy Finn and Patrick Ruffini before they signed on with Pawlenty; they clearly figured out how to generate maximum attention for the debut of Tim Pawlenty’s Freedom First PAC.

Pawlenty is an exceptionally nice guy, so I hesitate before uttering a discouraging word. But I’d note that as he aims to raise his profile on the national stage, I think even his supporters could concede he’s not exactly a whirling dervish of raw charisma and almost nothing he said today was terribly groundbreaking or stood out: the danger to liberty from “even well-meaning bureaucracies”, the fact that freedom requires the public to feel safe, the ability to pursue economic opportunity, and access to education and the ability to learn skills; the importance of reminding public that the promises that the other side makes are not free. He called the failure of schools to help students in disadvantaged communities is “the civil rights issue of our time.”

All good stuff, of course, but I was reminded of a conversation I had a few months ago with a top strategist for one of the Republican candidates of last year. He liked Pawlenty, but said he couldn’t describe himself as a believer: “Do you see Tim Pawlenty being the guy who gets up on a stage in fall of 2012 and rhetorically wins an argument against Barack Obama? No matter how hard I try, I just can’t see it.”

Asked about a presidential run, Pawlenty responded, “Both legally and practically, that’s not what the PAC is geared towards… Nobody, including me, should be focused on 2012. We should be focused on the elections in 2010 and 2009, and we have two important governor’s races this year. I’m working my tail off to help both, I’ve campaigned in both of those states for both of those candidates.” Freedom First PAC will hold its first fundraiser in Minneapolis in November.

It was the appropriate answer, but you don’t launch a PAC to help other Republicans and hire Bush and McCain folks if you have no interest in running for president. Perhaps, come 2012 (really 2011), after four years of soaring speeches that never led to any serious improvements, there will be a real appetite for a modest, soft-spoken Midwesterner in the Oval Office. But as effective as the “celebrity” charge was against Obama, that endlessly-praised rhetoric, those grandiose promises, and the atmosphere of “celestial choirs” that Hillary mocked still won the election.

He was a huge supporter of John McCain in the Republican primaries in 2008. This alone should disqualify him for any serious consideration as a conservative. No one who supported John McCain in the primaries should be listened to until they acknowledge their error and claim to have learned where they went wrong.

Tim Pawlenty is not a leader and not a conservative.

He’s a pretty good governor in pretty bad state. He’s mostly held the forces of envy and decline at bay here in Minnesota, but he hasn’t made any headway toward improvement here and he doesn’t lead.

Unless he has changed in some fundamental way since 2008, he’s not what America needs in a president.

I think the last few months have more than proven that the American people are ready for a government that does what it’s supposed to do, and nothing more. The question is, will we give them the candidate that can deliver that, or will we give them the “I’m not Obama” candidate?

Conservative credentials alone may not get a candidate elected. But electability is no reason to overlook the fact that they are lacking.

“Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty has been leading the charge for increased ethanol mandates. During his tenure as chairman of the National Governors Association, he advocated increased ethanol usage nationally and in 2005, he signed a law doubling Minnesota’s ethanol mandate from 10% to 20% by 2013. Only people on the far margins of the political spectrum oppose ethanol he said.”

http://minnesotaindependent.com/8485/on-global-warming-pawlenty-the-mccain-surrogate-distances-himself-from-pawlenty-the-governor

Didn’t many have a problem with Romney for his flip-flopping? Is it something about Republican Governors in Blue States? I believe in the first article linked above, he is not only for “ethanol mandates” but also advocates for Cap and Trade. It will be interesting to see what or if he has anything to say about the soon to come up Cap and Trade Bill in the Senate. I remember well how most Redstaters and American citizens felt about the House Cap and Trade Bill that passed, and, I suspect that we will all feel the same about the Senate version. Does Pawlenty agree that the Coal Industry needs to die, and does he agree with Obama’s statement that Cap and Trade “will necessarily skyrocket energy prices”?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a97T5pGNMgp8&refer=home

This article quotes some of Pawlenty’s remarks at this years CPAC convention-

“Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty has a message for his fellow Republicans: Get over Ronald Reagan. The old Republican orthodoxy of limited government, lower taxes and conservative social policies needs an update if the party hopes to challenge Democrats on issues such as health care, energy and education, he said.” “In a straw poll at CPAC- Pawlenty came in after Romney, Jindal and Palin among others.” My own observation- Palin wasn’t even there.

Many here believe that it takes someone with both style and substance to connect with the citizens. From a comment above, Pawlenty has no style, and I believe he isn’t sure of what substance he should try to portray.

No Thanks Governor Pawlenty, I’m not buying what you are selling, even if you do have an epiphany.

On the other hand, if Pawlenty was behind McCain in the general election, that’s being a loyal party member and is a good thing (unlike our Republican “moderates” who refuse to support conservatives in the general and who try to push them out of primary campaigns rather than letting the voters decide).

If I had wanted to address Pawlenty’s green thumb I would have replied to the first comment, not the second.

Enough said.

He bested his opponents, plain and simple. Then the party supported him as the party does.

So I don’t see what your point is at all by bringing him up in a Pawlenty discussion.