Tim Pawlenty sure looks foolish this morning.
With 83% of precincts reporting the GOP results are:
Romney 41%
McCain 22%
Huckabee 20%
So despite Tim Pawlenty being National Co-Chair of the McCain campaign and one of his top surrogates, only 1 in 5 of Timmy’s buddies in the MN GOP voted for the Arizona Senator.
Ouch.
There has been a lot of speculation about the possibility of McCain picking T-Paw as his VP nominee should he win the nomination. Much of the rationale, however, for a Pawlenty Vice Presidential nomination was based on the notion that Pawlenty would help deliver Minnesota in the general election.
If Tim Pawlenty can only deliver 20% of Republican votes, how on earth is he going to deliver Minnesota in a general election?
If we learned one thing from the MN GOP precinct caucuses this year, its that whatever Pawlenty’s personal popularity might be, he is not able to transfer much of it to another candidate. This fact, coupled with Huckabee’s strong showing tonight, makes the prospect of a Pawlenty Vice Presidential nomination unlikely.
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I was hearing the pundits on CNN last night speaking of the good turnout for Mike Huckabee in the Southern States and the possibility of a McCain-Huckabee ticket to get more of the Consertavive vote in the General Election.
That sure would piss off TPaw a bit for all the work he has been doing on McCain’s behalf of late in his hopes for a VeeP spot.
And what of Ron Carey’s stumping for Huckabee??? A split in the GOP in Minnesota???
Did TPaw even stump here form McCain? Listening to an interview with him (via MPR) he basically admitted that McCain didn’t devote any resources to the state, including himself.
A bigger threat to any potential VP asks (I don’t think TPaw would accept a VP if offered by the way) is how much McCain owes to Huck.
Exactly. TPaw was barnstorming all over the country for McCain, but I can’t remember any major events here. If he had worked a little harder on the home front the outcome may have been very different.
Let’s not forget who Norm Coleman heartily endorsed too: McCain. Doesn’t say much for the leading lights of the MN GOP does it?
McCain had big leads in public polls of Republican voters in Minnesota. The group that attends caucuses is a very small subgroup of the Republican vote in Minnesota.
I heard Pawlenty in an interview say that Sullivan beat him in the straw poll in 2002.
The caucuses in MN are nothing more than a beauty contest.
If Pawlenty’s not in the running for VP, then why is he flying with McCain to Germany this weekend?
Two words: Governor Molnau
It looks like we will be spared that nightmare.
I wonder if she would still be DOT Commissioner as Guv?
The republican Delegate race will probably boil down to who comes out of their SD conventions as delegates. Whether it’s still dominated by the the Evangelicals or if the traditional GOPers can make a comeback. I have no idea what their process is for selecting delegates to the RNC convention, if anyone knows maybe they can post it.
Tim may have been ruled out as a VP once McCain won Florida with Governor Crist’s endorsement.
McCain needs to ensure that he retains the states that Bush won in 2000 & 2004 … that’s not MN but Florida.
Huckabee as VP won’t help McCain outside of the Bible Belt as Crist would accomplish the same thing.
That stated, a McCain cabinet would include Pawlenty … possibly as HHS or Commerce … so Governor-to-be Milenau better keep her Veto Pen filled.
Would Molnau serve out the term, or would there be a special election? Christ, if the prospect of Molnau as governor doesn’t give Minnesota to the Democrat presidential nominee, I don’t know what will.
Dan -
Molnau would assume the position. Excuse me, I need some eye bleach now….
I don’t know. Quite frankly, in the interest of productive things happening this session or the next, I wouldn’t mind Timmy trying for VP, if it meant subsituting the somewhat limited PR skills of Molnau for the truely formidable PR skills of Pawlenty. Though I doubt he’d resign the governorship unless he got sure McCain could win.
Heck, with Molnau as the Republican standard bearer, the DFL majority might even win a few fights.
Sadly, he wouldn’t have to resign to run for VP, only if he won.
No doubt he is the master of the PR/spin game. He can smile his smile and slip the knife between your ribs and you’ll thank him for it. His administration has done NOTHING in his 5 years as Governor except protect the wealth of the wealthy. Did I mention he plays Hockey? What a fraud he is. Climbed the ladder of success going too public schools and a public university and then kicked out the rungs behind him.
But the guv has higher approval ratings than the legislature!
Shouldn’t we keep him and ‘fire’ all 201 of them?
Going to this website, a person is able to type in a donors name, and it will search for any monetary donations made by any individual. Type in “Winfrey” and one is able to see how many dollars Oprah Winfrey has made to the Obama campaing.
I find it very curious that no one named “Pawlenty” has made a single donation to the McCain Campaign.
Is this how one supports their candidate?
Sorry folks, I did not paste in the address: http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/finances/donors/index.html