Gov. Tim Pawlenty rolled out his non-campaign for president in Washington last week. He started out on a high note. He told CBS newsman Bob Schieffer that the Republican Party needs leadership that is optimistic and positive "as opposed to negative and cynical and demeaning."

However, Pawlenty's "end the negativity" Prague Spring lasted exactly one cab ride across town. His next stop was a speech to a gathering of college Republicans, where Minnesota's governor found he could not suppress his inner Rush and declared the Obama administration a "tyranny."
   
Unless schizophrenia is the national image Pawlenty is attempting to project, he still has some work to do on his brand.

Star Tribune columnist Lori Sturdevant noted on Sunday a similar disconnect, where "a governor who says that the national Republican Party needs new ideas governs like a Reagan relic at home."

One might think the governor of Minnesota's declaring the government of the United States a "tyranny" would make the news, at least back in Minnesota.  It didn't.
 
Politico takes note
Two reporters for Minnesota publications covered Pawlenty's speech to the college Republicans, and neither writer reported the "tyranny" statement.  Fortunately, the Washington publication Politico did not airbrush out Pawlenty's "tyranny" statement in its coverage.

Politico said Pawlenty called the Obama administration a "tyranny" responsible for "nationalizing" the mortgage, banking and automobile industries.

Eric Black commented recently that the Capitol press corps in St. Paul doesn't seem to know how to lay a glove on Pawlenty in his news conferences. The press needn't be just spin dispensers, but often they are. At his press conference announcing he would not run for reelection, Pawlenty wanted to make the case he was still held in favor by the public so he cited the poll that showed him leading against possible DFL candidates should he run for reelection. Some of the press reported his claim. None of the press reported the readily available polls that contradicted his claim, such as the poll that showed more Minnesotans now disapprove of him as governor than approve or the poll that said 57 percent of Minnesotans feel he should not run for reelection.

Being outmaneuvered by a skillful politician at a news conference need not be a great worry. The antidote to heavy-handed spin control is enterprise — spending five minutes on the Internet after his press conference calling up the polls that tell the fuller story, for example.

Pawlenty appeared on "Almanac" recently justifying his large cuts in the health and human services budget. Welfare costs were the problem, he claimed, caused by people moving in to gain generous benefits. An enterprising Pioneer Press reporter found Pawlenty's own administration's research had shown his claim of people moving to Minnesota for welfare was without merit.  Then Britt Robson of Politics in Minnesota learned from Sen. Linda Berglin that welfare constitutes only two percent of the state's health and human service budget.

Savvy politicians usually have the upper hand in the battle of the news conference, but enterprising reporters can still win the war for truth. 

Wayne Cox is executive director of Minnesota Citizens for Tax Justice.