The year 2012 may seem far away but politicos know the next
presidential election cycle comes all too fast. No one is
embracing this more than Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty who, in
recent weeks, has made a beeline for the national stage again,
most recently at the Republican National Committee meeting in San
Diego.
Pawlenty first became known to the country last year when his
name landed on the designated “shortlist” for John McCain’s VP
pick. But it wasn’t meant to be. A senior staffer muttered to me
begrudgingly at the Republican National Convention on the eve of
Sarah Palin’s memorable speech: “He wanted a woman. He got one.”
Oh, how the campaign of change changed things. Less than a year
after her run for Vice President, Palin stepped down from her
spot as Alaska’s spunky Governor, citing family and work
difficulties. Pawlenty, on cue, stepped up. Recently the South
St. Paul native said he would forgo the use of his worn veto pen
for a third term, leaving his calendar and political future wide
open. Since then, he’s been traveling the country from
Washington, D.C. to Aspen, Colorado, talking about everything
from healthcare to education. Last week he was elected
vice-chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association, a spot
which will do double-duty for Pawlenty’s future. While he stumps
for the nearly 40 GOP campaigns, he gets free media and a chance
to bolster his image while testing the waters.
Though Pawlenty’s actions are paving the way — or at least
leaving an opening — for a run for president, some pundits are
already brushing him off because he’s too “vanilla” to occupy
such a position. Couple this with his relative anonymity, and
some doubt the hockey-playing, marathon-running son of a truck
driver has what it takes to build rapport with an already weary
GOP, much less undecided voters.
Despite his lack of magnetism, his track record as a conservative
governor in a purple state is impressive. At the end of this last
legislative session, Pawlenty demanded his Democrat-controlled
legislature balance the budget or he would. Not only had
Democrats passed budget bills that left a $3 billion gap in
income and expenditures, but they wanted to increase taxes on
their fellow Minnesotans on everything from alcohol and music
downloads, including income taxes for every bracket.
Pawlenty outwitted his big-spending legislators and exercised an
obscure law on the books that enabled him to remove any state
spending for which funding doesn’t exist. In Pawlenty’s last
major achievement as governor, he balanced the budget and finally
removed Minnesota from the dreaded list of top ten most
highly-taxed states. Talk about going out with a bang.
In fact, a recent SurveyUSA
poll said 34% of Minnesotans now identify themselves as
Republicans, the largest percentage since 2005, where 35% did.
While some credit the shift to Obama’s disastrous healthcare
plan, it makes as much sense that after two terms of Tim
Pawlenty, his constituents finally see the advantage of
conservative ideals put into action.
Pawlenty’s already touting his achievements and taking his candid
conservatism on the road. He recently told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto
Obama was “scamming the American people” with his healthcare
plan. In this
op-ed in the Washington Post last week, Pawlenty
picked apart the President’s plan and encouraged Democrats in
Congress to look to the way he reformed healthcare the
conservative way in Minnesota. Such straight talk is customary to
the Minnesotans he represents; Pawlenty is more Everyman than
elitist. Such unpretentious manners may prove appealing to some
audiences, especially by 2012, when the sparkling,
uber-exclusivity of Obama’s image cannot rescue his failing
policies.
Is Pawlenty conservative enough? While he tends to hold a tough
line on taxes, he shows on a softer side on issues like mass
transit, education, and the environment (especially global
warming). He favored a 75-cent cigarette tax — he claimed, with
the agreement of the Minnesota court system, that it was a “user
fee” — and even advocated a statewide smoking ban. And Pawlenty
overrode his normal free-market tendencies to support the
importation of price-controlled prescription drugs from Canada.
But Pawlenty is clearly going for a test drive on the road to the
White House. Republicans looking for an economic and social
conservative who can win over Democratic voters might decide to
kick the tires too.
