Politico: Tim Pawlenty's Stock soars in VP stakes

[WI_DEM]

(alright! two boring white guys who won't even carry their home states! Go for it):

Tim Pawlenty has jumped to the top of the vice presidential shortlist of several Mitt Romney advisers after emerging as the most effective — and well-liked — surrogate for the GOP nominee-to-be, according to several Republicans familiar with campaign deliberations.

The former Minnesota governor has impressed top Romney officials with his winning onstage presence at a grueling roster of Republican events throughout the country and with his low-maintenance personal style that has made him a favorite with the campaign’s tight-knit inner circle at the Boston headquarters.

Pawlenty is strong where Romney is weak — with the regular-guy, working-man connection with voters in casual settings.

“Pawlenty will walk up and put a supporter in a headlock,” said a Republican consultant who was startled to witness just that. “He provides a nice yin and yang to Romney.”

Several top Republicans said that as the hockey-playing son of a blue-collar worker, and a longtime champion of connecting with what he has called “Sam’s Club Republicans,” Pawlenty would be comfortable campaigning among working-class voters in a way that Romney never will be.






Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0612/77619.html#ixzz1yLEAhO9Y

[WI_DEM]

1. that said, Pawlenty would be the safe choice--unlike Palin

who stole the campaign's spotlight he will be content to stand back and run the usual VP campaign--without making many gaffes.

[emulatorloo]

6. He's as nuts as Palin.

Hard to think he will be gaffe free.

[exboyfil]

2. Safe choice and might help some in

Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Makes sense for him since he got absolutely no air in his Presidential run and dropped out fast enought to avoid any bad blood with Romney. Still I do not see him helping in Virginia and Florida (probably not Ohio either).

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. He won't help in Minnesota, either.

Nobody will forget the I-35 bridge collapse, or his relentless budget-cutting at the expense of the poorest and sickest. He'd like to have done just exactly what Scott Walker did in Wisconsin, and he did his best to turn MN into a cold Alabama. This state used to have the reputation for some of the best schools and universities and businesses and infrastructure in the country - but after Pawlenty got done with us, not so much. After Pawlenty it's potholes in the roads and overcrowded schools and poor kids without insurance. We won't forget.

[WI_DEM]

5. good point, all Obama would need to do is point to the bridge collapse...

in Pawlenty's Minnesota as an example of GOP budget cuts on domestic priorities such as infrastructure and the result of such cuts.

[CTyankee]

18. Just my sentiments entirely! What kind of a governor allows that to happen?

No excuses, buddy. It was on your watch.

Squirm, you heartless bastard...

[WI_DEM]

4. that is what they are hoping for, but when he was exploring a race for president

of his own, he got out because he didn't develop much support in neighboring Iowa, so not so sure he will be as big of help as thought in that region--but, as you state, that is the thinking.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

7. Pawlenty's got all the personality of a damp washcloth.

A little shy on smarts, too, from what I've seen of him. So yeah, I can see the attraction.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. He's not as stupid as many GOPers,

but notwithstanding his friendly, aw-shucks demeanor, he's a doctrinaire true-believer like Paul Ryan and Scott Walker. And he's a mean SOB - he had no problem cutting aid for uninsured kids to keep from raising taxes on the wealthy (and there are a lot of rich people in MN). He does TV interviews well - much better than Mittens; he presents himself as a friendly, reasonable, regular guy - but he's not a good speaker, at all. He makes you want to run out and find some wet paint you can watch as it dries.

Mittens might be interested in him because there's no chance Timmy would upstage him, unlike, say, Chris Christie, who is nasty but interesting, or Marco Rubio, who is nasty but Latino. And he can't do Mittens any harm because he's not as stupid as Palin.

[MjolnirTime]

8. Please, Brair Mitt, don't throw us in the Pawlenty patch

[hrmjustin]

10. he is so boring.

he can't carry MN for Romney. He barely won re-election in 2006. If Romney really wants to go white male boring go portman. He can help carry OH.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

16. Portman was Bush's OMD Director. What better way to tie R-Money to Bush! Yeah, it's suicide!

[cbrer]

11. How do you spell DOOM?

P-A-W-L-E-N-T-Y

[turtlerescue1]

12. I have personal reasons to dislike mr. Pah Lunty.

It goes back to his days in the Mn. House. It goes back to the person who represented my district at the Capitol.

My n-hood had just lived through the "murder-apolis" designation. It had become a war zone, and many left instead of staying and standing up. We had finally gotten a new school rebuilt near where it had stood previously. Feeling safe was a delusion, and shots fired became "normal".

One of my cohorts called me one morning, the State decided it would be okay to give us 30 released Level III sex offenders. Like block leaders and those active in community didn't have enough concerns. She said in the phone call, whatever day of the week we did SecondHarvest at the church parking lot: City Councilperson and County Commissioner were fighting the huge release. SO...it became a topic at SecondHarvest, next thing someone called a local station (WCCO), it was decided they would interview us on my block. Thought I had managed to do what was my role, organize and let others speak. Was standing back behind the reporter and cameraman, and WHAM they put the mic in front of me, and of course calm person that I am I really went off. "IF they are going to make us a toxic dump site, then at least arm the seniors and kids with pepper spray and the rest of us with baseball bats, so we at least have a chance out here." YOU KNOW whose big mouth hit the news!

Same night was our Anti Crime group's meeting. Never heard the comment "Why don't you tell them how you REALLY feel?" repeated so many times. BUT our State Rep. attended the meeting. AND he decided he would try to work on the issue. SO he wrote a bill that would limit the number of Level IIIs per capita/population.

MR. Pawlenty would NOT let him read his bill. MR. PAWLENTY WOULD NOT LET HIM READ HIS BILLl.

Not knowing anything about how things go, I called our State Senator and told her. She did get a bill passed, not about "per capita/population" but schools, daycares, parks, etc.

When Mr. Pawlenty became governor, my State Rep finally told me WHO wouldn't let him read the bill.

Down the road, we had a terrible sex crime case along the Dakota-Mn border. Suddenly the man who had no concerns for adding to the worries of a community, sounded like he gave a damn.

Haven't had an ounce of respect for him since.

Everything in this post can be verified.

[jenmito]

13. This will NOT make the teabagger base happy which is why Willard had to come out last night and

announce that he IS really vetting Rubio (after all the reports that he's NOT seriously vetting him). It was another Mitt Moment-talk jibberish and pretend he's really saying something. All day he had been dodging the question about whether or not Rubio was NOT being vetted, claiming that only he and Beth Myers, the senior advisor he has put in charge of the search, know who's being vetted, yet later, after repeating that line, he claims Rubio IS being "thoroughly vetted."

I'm SURE that he only went out of his way to make that statement to satisfy his donors and tebagger base. But in the end, when Rubio is NOT picked for VP, the disappointment will surface again.

[Odin2005]

14. Mr. Bridge Collapse would be a great asset to Mr. Mormon.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

15. I'm rooting for T-Paw! He left Minnesota nearly bankrupt. How will he explain that away?

He nearly destroyed that state!!

[AtomicKitten]

17. Rmoney/T-Paw. Can you smell the excitement?