Mr. Minnesota Nice Guy Tim Pawlenty dropped out of the race for the White House today. Throughout the campaign, Pawlenty has inspired and captured the hearts of America with his lack of spinal cord and vertebrae. I can fully say that it will be very interesting to see how hard Romney, Bachmann and Perry fight to get the Pawlenty 3% bloc of voters and I'm sure we'll hear about them stumping for his prized endorsement.
All snark aside for the time being, I find Pawlenty's drop out to be more interesting than I originally thought. At one point, there was actual genuine hype that Pawlenty could actually be the nominee for the Republican Party.
For the past few years, Tim Pawlenty has been trying to inch his way into the national spotlight. He's done the traditional Republican pilgrimage to Reagan birthday parties and Faith & Family events to tout his conservative credentials. However, Pawlenty was a funny case. His main "achievement" in office was his role in the 2005 government shutdown of Minnesota. Remember that whole "results, not rhetoric" commercial he was running? Not likely because Pawlenty was a lame duck. Not in the political sense. He was just a duck that couldn't fly.
Pawlenty was one of the first anti-personality candidates that was thought to eventually stun the nation and make a run up the polls. But as the weeks wore on, it became quite certain that it wasn't going to work. So then the media moved on to Mitch Daniels and then Jon Huntsman, Jr. as Pawlenty floundered in the single digits. All of those political insiders couldn't make him viable.
Make no mistake though, Pawlenty nor Huntsman have a shot in hell of winning the nomination.
But why were they ever considered to be "serious" candidates in the first place?
The media has been trying to float this concept of a "reasonable" conservative for quite some time it seems. Maybe it's because there's no way people can accept the fact that Michele Bachmann (sponsor of the Free Light Bulbs Act) can be considered a player for the nomination of a major political party. Maybe a guy who once floated the idea of secession and rewrote history books should have no likely chance at possibly being the front-runner.
Wrong.
The myth of the "reasonable" conservative running for office is just that. A myth. The same people who believe that are the ones who believed that John Boehner and Eric Cantor were going to try and work with the President on anything for bipartisan purposes. It's just not going to happen. These people are against us and rabidly/comically so.
That's not to say Pawlenty or Huntsman are anything close to moderate. Pawlenty was a non-crazy eyed conservative and Huntsman is just a socially moderate (sort-of) entity. There's just no such thing as "moderate" in the classic sense. You are either a crazy teapot or a Republican running for President.
Pawlenty tried to be the quiet guy who would eventually make his move but would be invisible. Then he tried to install passion and conservative talking points and just came away looking comical and desperate.
That is to say, I do like our chances in 2012 and not just for the White House. So let's sit back and enjoy the GOP Civil War and Romney's soon-to-be thinning hairline.