The Wrong Tim Pawlenty Ran for President

You've probably seen the news by now that Tim Pawlenty has dropped out of the Presidential race after a disappointing distant third-place finish in the Iowa straw poll.

I'm sad to see Pawlenty exit the race. I never completely bought into the "Pawlenty is boring" criticism. Running the United States is a big job, and I want an adult in charge. Pawlenty had a solid track record as a fiscally conservative Governor getting elected in and managing Minnesota, which is a blue state. I agree with Melissa Clouthier that executive experience is a "must have" for my Republican Presidential nominee:

RedState | Presidential Primary Priorities - UPDATED

The “executive experience” requirement eliminates some folks, but oh well. I want our next President to know his or her way around the bottom line. He or she should be ok making decisions. A Governor has to be elected by a broad base of folks. A Governor has to stay true to principles but be more pragmatic. A good Governor leads.

I really liked this guy. Darn it.

I saw Pawlenty speak twice this year, at CPAC and at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference, and both times he gave wonderful, dynamic speeches. I also had the opportunity to meet Pawlenty earlier this month at a reception in Orlando, and was very impressed with him. (Peter Lee has posted a video of Pawlenty's speech on YouTube). I got to chat with Pawlenty briefly after the speech and found him to be a genuinely warm, intelligent, wonderful person. He would have made an excellent President.

Twitter Analysis of the Ames Debate

During the last GOP Presidential debate in June, I did an analysis of the trending topics on Twitter immediately afterwards and got a lot of positive responses.

So, back by popular demand, here's another city-by-city analysis of what everyone was tweeting about the debate in Ames, Iowa tonight. One thing is immediately clear: there were a lot fewer debate-related trending topics than when I did this analysis in June. Not sure if there were less overall tweets, or if an election that's still more than a year away was overshadowed by the controversy about whether Bert and Ernie should get married (Yes, "Bert and Ernie" is a trending topic in many cities tonight, and yes this is a real issue. I wish I were kidding.) but the Ames debate was definitely less of a presence on the trending topics lists tonight.

Anyway, here's your trending topics (if a city is not listed, then it did not have any debate-related trending topics):

Overall United States: T-Paw

Atlanta: Ron Paul

Austin: #GOPdebate
Boston: Mitt Romney
Chicago: Ron Paul
Dallas-Ft. Worth: Ron Paul   Rick Perry
Denver: Ron Paul
Houston: Rick Perry   Ron Paul
Los Angeles: Rick Santorum   Mitt Romney
Minneapolis: Ron Paul
Nashville: Ron Paul
New York: #GOPdebate   Mitt Romney   Santorum
Orlando: Rick Perry
Phoenix: Rick Perry
San Antonio: Rick Perry
San Francisco: Mitt Romney
Seattle: Mitt Romney
Tampa: Rick Perry
Washington: #gopdebate   Rick Santorum   T-Paw   Jon Huntsman

The important thing to remember is that the presence of a name on the trending topics list does not necessarily equal support. All it means is that people were talking about that candidate. In the case of Ron Paul, the overwhelming number of responses I saw were extremely negative. Paul's rabid fans don't like to admit it, but his foreign policy is just way, way out of the Republican mainstream and he has no chance of winning the primary.

Someone Tell Ron Paul that Iran is a threat because their leaders are even Crazier than he is #amesdebate #GOPdebate #iowadebateFri Aug 12 02:23:15 via TweetDeckJeff Dunetz
yidwithlid

 

Ron Paul would be great for the economy, but unfortunately, we'd be blown up by a nuclear Iran before we got to enjoy it. #amesdebateFri Aug 12 02:16:35 via TweetDeckPrudence Paine
PruPaine

The presence of Rick Perry on so many cities' lists is very interesting, considering that he was not even in Iowa tonight and has not officially declared his candidacy yet (although rumors say he will do so on Saturday at the RedState Gathering in Charleston, SC). Perry was definitely the "elephant" in the room. (Ha ha...get it? Elephant, like the Republican mascot? Sometimes I just crack myself up.) Michele Bachmann had a great answer to Bret Baier's question about Perry, saying there was room for Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, and even Bret himself if he wanted to get in...but the reality is that many of the candidates on the stage tonight know that if when Perry enters the race, their chances of victory will drop significantly.

In other news. Rick Perry is looking great. #amesdebateFri Aug 12 02:39:33 via Twitter for iPhoneAndrew Staroska
OHCONSERVATISM

I'll post some more thoughts about the debate later if I get a chance, but wanted to get this posted. What did you think about the debate? Were you following on Twitter? Who do you think won the debate? Leave a note in the comments!

Morning Coffee Reading for June 20, 2011

Here's your morning coffee reading for today:

• Tim Pawlenty spoke at the Right Online conference last weekend, and knocked their socks off. Don't write him off yet, folks.

RedState | Erick Erickson | Tim Pawlenty impresses Right Online

• Looks like President Obama's quick visit to Puerto Rico may have been a good fundraising trip, but has the potential to become a public relations nightmare. Apparently spending only four hours on the island territory "unleashed a growing political furor."

Salon | Obama's Puerto Rico visit spurs anger, discontent

• Here's an interview with Attorney General Pam Bondi by Sunshine State News, discussing public records and transparency in government:

YouTube | TheSunshineStateNews | AG Pam Bondi on Public Records

• Legal Insurrection is an excellent legal/political blog written by conservative law professor William A. Jacobsen. The site recently went through a nice redesign. Same great content. Go check out the new site. and follow Professor Jacobsen on Twitter: @LegInsurrection.

• Here's a heartwarming story about a charity, American Veterans Empowerment Team (AVET), which sends care packages to troops overseas and pampers them when they visit home. This Fox Orlando video shows one service member getting picked up in a limo at the airport.

My Fox Orlando | AVET offers support to troops and military families

• Great blog post by @ChrisOfRights with a more accurate perspective on the Robin Hood story:

Chris of Rights | Liberalism and Robin Hood

A few thoughts on last night's GOP presidential debate

Last night's GOP presidential debate took place in New Hampshire and was moderated by CNN's John King. Here's some of my thoughts on how it went:

Tweet of the Day

Yesterday morning, I wrote a post declaring that it was unfair and inaccurate to call Tim Pawlenty boring. A few hours later, he proved me right by sending out this tweet:

@BarackObama sorry to interrupt the European pub crawl, but what was your Medicare plan?Thu May 26 21:06:40 via Twitter for BlackBerry®Tim Pawlenty
timpawlenty

Awesome. I like the feisty side that Pawlenty has been showing lately.

For far too long, Republicans have indulged a tendency to be polite and not fight back, no matter how outrageous and malicious the Democrats' lies were. Just last week, the DCCC released a web ad with a Paul Ryan look-alike shoving an old lady in a wheelchair off a cliff. The insinuation was that Congressman Ryan's budget plan would end Medicare and kill senior citizens, perhaps echoing former (I love writing that) Congressman Alan Grayson's silly temper tantrum on the House floor that "Republicans want you to Die Quickly!"

So, yes, I definitely like this side of Tim Pawlenty.

You can follow him on Twitter at @timpawlenty.

Pawlenty = Boring? Not this week!

Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty has been getting slammed for being "boring." In my opinion, this is unfair for two reasons.

First of all, flashiness and soaring rhetoric and a deliriously excited media got us Barack Obama. We've had immature comments slandering Cambridge police officers followed by a silly little "beer summit," an endless series of self-aggrandizing speeches, unconstitutional expansions of executive power (ceding control to appointed czars, increased efforts to bypass Congress through regulatory power grabs, violation of the War Powers Act regarding U.S. military action in Libya, etc.), and his recent short-sighted comments that Israel should return to the 1967 borders. In contrast to all of that nonsense, I really like the idea of putting a stable adult in charge, someone who will act out of logic and rational strategy, not emotion and ego.

Second, Pawlenty has been anything but boring this week. After weeks of painfully awkward and embarrassing campaign launches like Newt Gingrich's backstabbing comments about Paul Ryan to Mitt Romney's blindness to the weaknesses of Romneycare, it was refreshing to see Pawlenty come out of the gate looking strong and confident.

Here's the official campaign announcement video. It's a solid message:

YouTube | GovernorTimPawlenty | Tim Pawlenty - A Time for Truth

These campaign videos are always at least a little schlocky but Pawlenty sounds strong and confident here. I like the message. One of my favorite lines:

I know the American Dream, because I've lived it. And I know for it to be there for the next generation, we're gonna have to do more than give fancy speeches. We've had three years of that, and it's not working.

Pawlenty made his official campaign announcement on Monday in Iowa, where he boldly told the audience that ethanol subsidies needed to be phased out. Ethanol subsidies are a big flippin' deal in corn-field-covered Iowa, so saying something like that to Iowan voters took a giant pair of you-know-whats.

Some people will be upset by what I'm saying.

Conventional wisdom says you can't talk about ethanol in Iowa or Social Security in Florida or financial reform on Wall Street.

But someone has to say it.  Someone has to finally stand up and level with the American people.  Someone has to lead.

When times get tough, there's always a temptation among politicians to try to turn the American people against one-another.  Some try to fan the flames of envy and resentment as a way to deflect attention from their own responsibilities.

But that's not good enough.  Our problems demand - and our children deserve - much more from us this time.

I am still making up my mind about the Presidential race, but Pawlenty's earned a place on my short list. What do you think about him?

[Cross-posted at The Minority Report and Red County]

Morning Coffee Reading for May 23, 2011

Here's your morning coffee reading for today:

• In case you missed the news over the weekend, Herman Cain is in the race for President, Tim Pawlenty will officially announce he's getting in today, and Mitch Daniels is out.

• Abel Harding at the Florida Times-Union had an interesting blog post yesterday about the spread of fake Twitter accounts parodying political figures, notably in the Florida Republican Senate primary. IMHO, several of these accounts cross the line from being funny to being ugly and abusive. There's no way to completely prevent someone from creating one of these accounts, so I guess the next best thing is to spread the word and hopefully people become aware the fake accounts are out there, and know not to attribute any of the nonsense to the real candidates.

Jacksonville.com | PolitiJax Blog | Fake Twitter accounts raise eyebrows, create confusion in Florida Senate primary

• The St. Petersburg Times and POLITICO are teaming up to cover the 2012 elections. They'll be sharing content in both their respective print and online editions. This new arrangement is partially due to the 2012 Republican Convention being in Tampa.

St. Petersburg Times | The Buzz Blog | Times, POLITICO team up for 2012 coverage

• Gene Simmons from the band KISS had some harsh words for President Obama over the weekend. Simmons, whose real name is Chaim Witz, was born in Israel and let's just say he strongly disagrees with Obama's suggestion that Israel go back to its 1967 borders. Added bonus: he discusses the United Nations as well (Spoiler: he doesn't like them, either). Video of Simmons' interview is included with the article (warning - NSFW language):

Real Clear Politics | KISS' Gene Simmons: Obama "Has No F***ing Idea What The World Is Like"

• Here's Erick Erickson, making a lot of sense, as usual, in a brief post about the current crop of Republican Presidential candidates: "I can live with the field and I hope you can too."

RedState | Off to the races with the horses we have

•  George Soros-funded Media Matters apparently started a campaign to target companies that advertise on the Fox News Channel (keeping with their usual theme of "free speech for me but not for thee"). One thing they didn't count on was a corporation that had a backbone. Travel website Orbitz responded to the call for a boycott from "DropFox.com" with force and confidence. Well done, Orbitz. The boundaries of free speech should not be set by bullies.

Big Journalism | Travel Giant Orbitz Stands Up To Soros "Smear Campaign"

More totally obvious self-promotion by a presidential contender

So, last week, Mitt Romney was running ads on Facebook that congratulated Marco Rubio on winning the Senate race, in what was a totally obvious effort to promote his own 2012 presidential bid.

Now, this week, it appears that a few more contenders are joining the Facebook ad game.  I saw this ad from Tim Pawlenty, looking suspiciously like the Romney ad:

OK, same color scheme, same pairing of Marco's photo on the left, Rubio's name in bold letters, and the congratulatory message referring to Marco's election as a "history victory."  Sheesh.  At least he could have tried to be a little bit original.

Clicking on the ad takes you to Tim Pawlenty's Facebook page, with this photo:

...Note that the tabs at the top include the traditional Facebook "Wall," and "Info," and of course an invitation to "Join TPaw" by supporting his "Freedom First PAC," and then ..the next two tabs are "New Hampshire" and "Iowa," listing all the many fun stuff that "TPaw" has been doing in those little states lately.

I don't feel like going into my full "why do these itty bitty snow covered states have such a ridiculously disproportionate impact on Presidential primaries" rant, but at least they did serve as a very simple litmus test: any politician who is not from Iowa who posts a bunch of Facebook photos with random corn farmers is definitely running for President.