Tim Pawlenty not the myth the media villagers are portraying

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Now that the GOP's prophesied savior Mitch Daniels has bowed out, the GOP has turned to its latest savior-of-the-week in former governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota.

Republican Tim Pawlenty officially announced today he's getting into the 2012 presidential race because "America is in big trouble" and he believes he has the managerial skills necessary to get the country on steadier financial footing. Check out this AP headline: Republican Pawlenty running as fiscal fix-it man.

Seriously? This AP reporter should have picked up the phone and called former Republican governor of Minnesota Arne Carlson to ask him what he thinks of "T-Paw's" fiscal mangerial skills. GOP Predecessor On Pawlenty: ‘I Don’t Think Any Governor Has Left Behind A Worse Financial Mess’:

[N]ot everyone agrees with Pawlenty’s fiscal bona fides. Pawlenty’s predecessor, Arne Carlson, a Republican who was governor of Minnesota from 1991 to 1999, recently told Time magazine of the presidential hopeful, “I don’t think any governor has left behind a worse financial mess than he has.” Carlson is an avowed fiscal conservative who, in his retirement, has led a “Paul Revere Tour” to raise alarm about the state’s finances. Carlson has been a frequent critic of Pawlenty’s fiscal mismanagement and in April, he told Minn Post that Pawlenty undid important fiscal reforms and is solely to blame for the state’s fiscal morass:

“Under Tim Pawlenty, it became deficit heaven,” said Carlson. “All the things we did were undone. Now, what bothers me is you get these holier-than-thou attitudes. Oh, we’re all to blame. But that’s just not true. There’s one person who has the power to insist on a balanced budget. That’s the chief executive officer, the governor.”

Indeed, history sides with Carlson on this one. As CNN reported, thanks to Pawlenty’s refusal to even consider raising revenue, he left office “with a $6 billion deficit and higher unemployment than when he became governor.” In fact, Pawlenty’s deficit was “one of the highest in the nation as a percentage of the state’s general fund, only slightly trailing California’s massive gap,” the Los Angeles Times noted.

When he did balance the budget, Pawlenty relied on budget “gimmicks.” For example, “He postponed school and other obligations, leading to hikes in local property taxes and strains on school districts as burdens shifted downward.”

Perhaps even more unforgivable to conservatives, Pawlenty was only able to balance his budget by relying on President Obama’s stimulus package — the same stimulus package he derided as “a house of cards” of borrowed money that was “misdirected” and “largely wasted”. In fact, stimulus dollars accounted for “nearly one-third” of his budget gap. This led to what a local Fox affiliate dubbed a “faux-surplus.”

Pawlenty won both his statewide gubernatorial races with less than 50% of the vote. He was barely re-elected in 2006, by 21,000 votes. In each race, the presence of a third-party candidate (Jesse Ventura's Independent Party) fractured the state's mostly Democratic voters to his advantage. An electoral juggernaut he's not.

Pawlenty is taking heat for what some call a bungled answer to Time Magazine when asked when he decided he was "up to the grand challenge of the presidency." When did Pawlenty decide to run? He’s not sure – CNN Political Ticker:

Pawlenty responded by noting he had set up a political action committee two years ago. But pressed further on when and how he came to the realization he had what it takes to carry the burdens of the presidency, the former governor said, "I don't know, I wish I had a good answer for you on that."

Pawlenty added he felt a responsibility upon leaving the governor's office at a young age not to merely "go make some money and play hockey and drink beer."

Whoa! Flashback to 1980 when Roger Mudd of CBS News asked Edward Kennedy "Why do you want to be president?" and Teddy struggled to find an answer. Many politicos regard this as the death-knell of the Kennedy campaign. History is repeating itself.

The DNC is out with a new video today that combines what they see as Pawlenty's two primary vulnerabilities: his rapid abandonment of once sensible positions on issues like cap and trade in order to make himself acceptable in a GOP primary; and his recent admission that he doesn’t know why he's running for president.

Pawlenty is relying on a PR firm to create a mythical action hero "T-Paw" who is exciting in his campaign videos. Voters who have to endure him speak in person are going to be sadly disappointed. "If you looked up boring in the dictionary," comedian Seth Meyers cracked at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in April, "that'd be more exciting than listening to Tim Pawlenty." Got that right!

The AP report says Pawlenty is "betting it all on Iowa." Republican Pawlenty running as fiscal fix-it man:

If he wins Iowa, as he says he must, Pawlenty could emerge as the chief rival to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who lost the GOP nomination in 2008 and ranks higher in polls this year.

If Pawlenty falls short, however, he'll have to reevaluate the viability of his bid for the Republican nomination, despite the two years' groundwork he's laid in his neighboring state.

OK, two glaring problems with this flawed strategy. First, Iowa is no longer predictive of who wins the GOP nomination. Iowa is simply I.O.W.A. ("idiots out wandering around"). Mike Huckabee won in 2008.

Second, most politicos predict that Pawlenty's fellow Minnesotan, Rep. Michele Bachmann, who is originally from Waterloo, Iowa, will enter the race in the next few weeks. If she does, Pawlenty and Bachmann will be competing for the same social conservative Christian Dominionist vote. Pawlenty is married to one, Bachmann is the real deal (graduate of Oral Roberts' law school, now Regent University) and the darling of the Tea Party. Bachmann is the spoiler, and Pawlenty would meet his Waterloo in Iowa.