WASHINGTON — Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty says he will decide whether to run for the White House early next year but adds that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin “can probably wait a lot longer to make a potential decision she might make.”
Speaking at a Monitor-sponsored breakfast with national political reporters, Gov. Pawlenty said he would make a decision about his political future in “early 2011, sometime after the first of the year.” Pawlenty currently serves as vice chair of the Republican Governors Association and was a finalist in John McCain’s search for a vice presidential running mate in 2008.
Palin was the winner of that selection process and became a household name as a result. Pawlenty said his decision about a White House bid in 2012 “won’t be dependent upon what other people do or don’t do.”
Pawlenty did note Palin’s unique standing among potential GOP presidential candidates in 2012. “Given her status, she can afford to wait, I think, a lot longer than most other candidates because she has a kind of built-in level of familiarity and awareness and support that might not be the same for others.”
A Gallup poll of Republican voters conducted July 8-11 found Palin had the highest favorable ratings among potential GOP candidates, followed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and current Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
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Comments (10)
Surely, our Governor is being coy. What is all this talk about when he will be deciding to officially start running for the White House. For the last year and maybe more, he has been mostly a Governor-in-absentia, gallivanting around the country (and around the world) promoting mostly himself. Maybe, he is only building up some tailwind to improve his poll numbers. Good luck with that.
What a motley crew the GOP has waiting in the wings. The only word I can think of that might describe them all is: empty!
Pawlenty has empty pockets with his ridiculous no-tax pledges. Huckabee has proven he has an empty voter following. Jindal has an empty oil can with his schizophrenic pleas for MORE government help with the spill... while at the same time insisting on MORE deep water drilling. Gingrich has empty ethics. Romney is an empty suit. And Palin? An empty dress to match her empty head. The mantra of the whole bunch is to return to the policies, ethics, and failures of the Bush era.
If this is what Obama faces in 2012 the Dems should be a shoo in.
J.J.--
Is that the good news?
Who would vote for Pawlenty? I don't know anybody in Minnesota who thinks he has done a good job. But I give him credit, he is the only Republican who has to guts to on the liberal leaning TV shows. But he doesn't have the guts to fix the budget crisis in Minnesota.
A bit of political prophecy: Tim Pawlenty is nowhere in the picture at the 2012 convention, unless other candidates meet with tragic... plane crashes, shall we say? He may be asked to give a speech outside of TV prime time.
Meanwhile, the Big Money/Big Business Republican establishment (you know, the "Chamber of Commerce," "Club for Growth," people who really run the party), do not trust Sarah Palin. They will NEVER allow her to become the nominee (in 2012, or ever).
But with poll numbers such as she already has, she believes that the nomination is her right. When she doesn't get it, she will take her marbles (the few she has) and leave the GOP to start a third party run (The "Party of Freedom"? or some such meaningless but patriotic sounding name). In the process, she'll take the Tea Partiers, the religious reichwingers, and a collection of horny young (and not so young) Republican men with her.
In short, the 2012 Republican convention will be the end of the Reagan coalition.
Of course, as Ms. Palin has proven in the past, she will not be a bit reluctant to tear the Republican Party apart. In fact, she'll delight in putting a knife in the back of the Republican establishment that gave her the break which led to her current position of fame and glory (fame and glory in some circles, at least).
Agree with him or not, Governor Pawlenty has a future in GOP politics.
Yes, Paul. You may call it that!
The bad news, however, comes in the form of a prediction for the next decade or longer.
With his quixotic dreams for the Presidency dashed, Mr. Pawlenty will make preparations to run for a U.S. Senate seat against Amy Klobuchar. You may recall that was what he set out to do back in 2002, but he was dissuaded or ordered to abandon that mission by one Dick Cheney. Mr. Pawlenty will be soundly defeated by Ms. Klobuchar.
Mr. Pawlenty will then wait another two years to run against Senator Franken. But by then, the Republicans will have been so fractured that Tim will not prevail.
In the intervening (in-between) years, however, Mr. Pawlenty will be prospering personally from the multitude of ventures as a lobbyist, a traveling speaker, Fox News pundit/commentator, etc.
All that will not, necessarily, be bad news to him. Only to us ... he will be our albatross.
Pawlenty might as well get in the race. Given the choices between Romney and Gingrich (I don't think Palin's running) he has as much a chance as those two to win the nomination.
When the debates start he has more recent governing experience than any of his potential rivals. By 2012 in the general election, anybody with a pulse would stand an even chance of beating Obama.
One item that was not mentioned in this article .... According to St. Paul Pioneer Press, Mr. Pawlenty also "wanted reporters to know he's not one of the 'country-club, polo-playing, brie-eating, Chablis-sipping' Republican stereotypes." (Pioneer Press, 7/27/2010, page 8A.)
Thank you, Mr. Pawlenty, for outing these dastardly Republicans!
The same Pioneer Press article (by Emily Cahn, the Houston Chronicle) referred to by J.J. Sefton quoted Pawlenty, who supports Arizona's new law, on what his immigration policy would be as president.
"Referring to illegal immigrants, he said the country 'cannot hve a wide swatch of the population openly, knowingly ignoring the law.'
"Law breaking can escalate, he indicated.
" 'If you allow people to pee on the sidewalks, next they're snatching purses, next they're punching you in the face, next they are breaking windows and putting guns in your ribs, so you've got to have the law be respected, you have to conform the law to behavior or the behavior to the law.' "
The article does not say if Pawlenty is speaking of undocumented immigrants or of the companies who knowingly hire persons who are here illegally.