The Washington Post’s Anne Kornblut reports that John McCain’s anointment of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate left Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty with “bruised feelings”

Writes Kornblut, “Two senior Republican officials close to Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty said they had both been rudely strung along and now ‘feel manipulated.’

“‘They now know that they were used as decoys, well after McCain had decided not to pick them,’ one Republican involved in the process said.”

Country first, TPaw.