Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota: Reaganism’s last best hope?
On the national political level, the state of Minnesota is generally blue, with some touchy, sometimes alarming moments in certain elections, like the Bush vs Kerry election in 2004. That was close, but we still wound up in the blue column. But while the national politics of the state have been reliably liberal, the internal politics of the Minnesota have been quite a different story. As the Democratic Farm Labor (DFL) party that Hubert Humphrey put together began to implode in the 1970s, the Reagan Republican movement began to get a foothold and became a dominant factor in State politics ever since the mid 1980s. You have all heard about our governor, Republican Reaganite Tim Pawlenty. He was apparently on the short list for the vice presidential slot with John McCain, until he was suddenly swept aside for Sarah Palin. I am not sure whether you would have liked Pawlenty any better than you liked Sarah Palin, but one thing is certain–there are a lot of people in Minnesota who are tired of Pawlenty, if for no other reason than has made a political career out of being a tiresome governor. At a time when the state has lots of problems Pawlenty, like most Republicans is someone who is against most things and in favor of just a couple–not exactly the reassuring approach to problem solving. Had the Democrats put anyone up against Pawlenty in 2006, other than Mike Hatch, Pawlenty would probably be history. But Hatch committed the mother of all no-nos in Minnesota politics: he had a public temper tantrum. So Pawlenty got elected and continued on his march towards complete obscurity, greatly accelerated by our current fiscal crisis.
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