Pawlenty pretends he’s still governing Minnesota

Tim Pawlenty’s presidential campaign came out with a few health care proposals yesterday. The proposals themselves are pretty much unremarkable: some aren’t bad, some are terrible, but whatever. To me, what makes the proposals interesting is that Pawlenty is taking what’s obviously a policy statement from his campaign and trying to make it look like it’s related to his job as Governor — as if any of these proposals will ever even get a start in the legislature.

Let’s forget about the fact that the legislature is overwhelmingly Democratic, and not particularly receptive to Pawlenty’s ideas. Even leaving that aside, Pawlenty is a lame duck, and the only remaining session of the legislature will be a bonding session, not a budget session. In even-numbered years, the legislature’s sole task is to pass the bonding bill. Pawlenty’s proposals don’t really have any place in the upcoming session.

I don’t begrudge Pawlenty his run for president — in fact, I’m hopeful it will bring a bit of attention to Minnesota politics. But I just wish he’d admit that’s what he’s doing, so we can stop pretending his proposals are directed at Minnesotans, rather than the nation at large.