Gov. Pawlenty will take his I’m-thinking-about-running-for-president campaign to New Hampshire in December. According to New Hampshire Political Report (subscription only), the visit will make him the first of any of the likely 2012 presidential candidates to visit the state that, in case you hadn’t heard, holds the first primary.
Details of the visit were not revealed. Pawlenty has not, of course, announced his presidential candidacy and continues to suggest that his political activities outside Minnesota are all about helping Republicans in the 2010 election cycle. Yeah, right. So cautious reporters will seize on the visit to New Hampshire, (as they did the recent visit to Iowa) as a clue that his sights are set on a 2012 White House bid. But we’re all grown-ups here. In the modern era, the day a candidate announces for president is essentially a media event, not a major political development. Even if TPaw changes his mind before that day arrives, he is, for now, an active candidate for president (yes, just like R.T. Rybak was a candidate for governor months before he announced.)
By the way, the estimable Minnesota politics pundit Dan Hofrenning of St. Olaf, stuck his neck out on Almanac last weekend and predicted flatly that Pawlenty will be the Repub nominee in 2012. (Hofrenning’s partner on that Almanac panel, David Schultz of Hamline, described Pawlenty as a distant fourth in the GOP nominee-stakes, behind Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin.) Hofrenning’s blunt prediction elicited a shocked “wow” each from Schultz and co-hosts Eric Eskola and Cathy Wurzer.
I’ll be surprised if Pawlenty throws his hat in the ring for pres. VP maybe, or GOP party leader.
Shrewd politicians, and Pawlenty is one, seldom go for prizes they have a slim change of winning.
But you never know, and it makes good fodder for the pundits during an otherwise boring time between elections. Boring, that is, if one ignores the truly hot topics of the day.
Is there no Minnesota statute that calls for state employees (and Gov? Tim is one) to spend at least 40 hours a week ‘on the job’–meaning in the state and in their office??
I’m astounded that the Legislative leaders–and the press–haven’t been outraged by his behavior. And tried steps to get him back on the job.
Pawlenty doesn’t stand a chance. If he does run for ANYTHING, the people of MN will reveal all of his governing in absentia facts and not honoring the requests of the people. I hope he spends a fortune before he gets the boot.
For all practical purposes the governor is a lame duck. His time is probably better spent branding and marketing himself to conservatives and the delegates who are in the caucus’s.
John makes a good point that the governor is politically astute. I would add that his timing has been well played thus far. He has had most of the summer and fall “candidate” events to himself. He also seems to be riding the conservative anti-Obama wave quite well.
He is smart not declaring himself as a candidate. If his brand or message does not resonate too well he will lost nothing. Though he does stand to gain a fair amount of recognition as well as some GOP street cred. The shear simplicity of it proves to be a very good political/marketing “campaign”.
Although when all the branding and marketing is done. Absent celebrity or some huge donor money, he will be forced to reckon with the gravitational pull of reality. I agree with John, VP at best or perhaps a run at Franken’s senate seat as a plan B.
Patricia:
Unfortunately, the national media have not seen beyond Pawlenty’s “charm” and “modesty” and his dubious claim that he is leaving Minnesota better off than he found it — and without raising taxes, by gosh.
Perhaps his current campaign efforts to gather the furthest-right-of-the-right to his side will open some eyes in other areas of the country.