The word is that former Governor Tim Pawlenty will officially announce tomorrow in a town hall in Des Moines, Iowa; judging from his campaign videos, this will be heralded by an overflight of a squadron of F-15E Strike Eagles, an announcement that Minnesota genetic researchers have recreated the passenger pigeon, and T-Paw personally leading a mission to disable the Yellowstone super-volcano caldera before it erupts and destroys the North American continent.

Also, there will be pie.

I kid, I kid: but Tim Pawlenty is certainly taking this campaign highly seriously, and I expect that he’ll be upping said campaigning a good deal in the next few months.  With Mike Huckabee and Mitch Daniels out, it’s increasingly looking like Pawlenty is lining up to be the guy to go to if you don’t want to support Romney*.  Despite the fact that (at the moment) I am tending towards formally personally endorsing Pawlenty for the nomination, I would actually prefer that the field remain crowded for a bit longer.  If only because it frustrates the Democrats so not to have an obvious target for their upcoming smear campaign.

Last thought: you have to wonder whether Rick Perry of Texas is taking a second look.  Right now Pawlenty’s in an excellent position to clean up in South Carolina, but Perry could win that state’s primary.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*I cannot really assess at this point the likelihood of a successful Herman Cain and/or Michele Bachmann campaign.  The odds are long against outsider and/or House of Representative candidates: we tend to like governors and/or Senators for President.  The last one we’ve had that hadn’t been either first was Eisenhower, and he had the advantage of having “Pounded the Nazis into the ground” on his resume.

Jon Huntsman?  Not a chance.  Like Erick Erickson, I’m not happy at Huntsman’s sense of timing.