Pawlenty Joins McCain Campaign

Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota has announced he’ll be the national co-chair of McCain’s Presidential bid. This isn’t terrifically surprising, as Pawlenty had been allying himself with McCain previously. Pawlenty is considered to be on the short-list of possible VP contenders in 2008, and his narrow win in the Minnesota Republican slaughter has ensured that he is known as a Republican who can compete in a blue state like Minnesota.

2 thoughts on “Pawlenty Joins McCain Campaign

  1. If McCain’s the nominee (which is looking more questionable by the day), I’d bet money on Pawlenty winning the veepstakes. Having the hometown boy coronated at the GOP convention would be a dramatic local spectacle and greatly improve the GOP’s odds of winning Minnesota in November 2008. Pawlenty’s already neutered governance will be so benign in the next 18 months that his approval ratings should stay in the comfort zone. That narrow 22,000-vote Pawlenty victory changed alot in terms of the ’08 convention. Had Pawlenty not won, it would have been a pretty glum convention in St. Paul.

  2. I think this was actually a pretty dumb move, both for Pawlenty’s agenda and for his career.

    Before, Pawlenty could have been a Veep candidate for a number of frontrunners and kept his options open. He’s now hitched his wagon to McCain, and if McCain doesn’t win, Pawlenty has a tough uphill ride for the VP nomination.

    Politically, tying himself to a moderate means that Pawlenty would have to be the one that appeases the wing-nut base of the ticket. He’ll have to take a hard turn to the right–placing him on a direct collision course with a legislature and other statewide office holders dominated by the Democrats. He’ll either have to compromise with the Democrats, angering the nuts on the right, or get ready for a pretty divisive couple of years, alienating the moderate Republicans–at a time when that’s the last thing the GOP needs out west and in the south and key places like Rochester.

    Pawlent’s basically put his own career ahead of the Minnesota Republican Party. I like it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.