So Tim Pawlenty has dropped out of the race for President. I’m not sure if anybody is really surprised; certainly, nobody should have expected a different outcome (I certainly didn’t). Which makes you wonder exactly why nobody bothered to tell him, although as long as the paychecks were still being signed I’m sure his advisors would have told him anything.
Pawlenty’s entire “Goldilocks” strategy was all wrong when it comes to running for president. You can win the nomination by being exciting. Barack Obama’s campaign was exciting. Michele Bachmann is exciting in the way that a Greyhound bus barreling down the freeway at 90 MPH, and on fire, is “exciting”. Tim Pawlenty is not exciting. When he pretends to be exciting, it comes across as trying too hard or just insincere. He was never going to set people’s hearts on fire.
The other way to win the nomination, especially if you are a Republican, is to finally get your turn. Bob Dole. John McCain. Tim Pawlenty has not been on the trail nearly long enough for it to be his turn. Romney, perhaps, but not Pawlenty.
The worst part is that Pawlenty hurt the state while he was trying to buttress his conservative credentials his last few years in office. Had somebody told him that there was no chance for him to be president, maybe he would have backed off on his most extreme positions and tried to do what is best for the state. Or maybe not, although I don’t think he is really a Tea Partier at heart. At least before he started running for higher office, he struck me as essentially just another rather boring suburban Republican: safe, unlikely to make waves, generally pragmatic, more a business warrior than a social warrior.
Pawlenty tried to beat the odds when he ran for president, and the odds won. He was just the wrong candidate for the time.