Posted on 08/28/2008 1:15:52 PM PDT by Fred
With the Minnesota governor in Denver to continue his role as a GOP surrogate during the Democratic convention here, reporters were bent on determining where he stands -- or rather where he'll be standing tomorrow morning.
Pawlenty, a much talked-about vice presidential prospect, said that he is "scheduled to be and plans to be" doing a weekly scheduled radio show from the Minnesota State Fair tomorrow morning at 9:00 am. He told reporters that he will be leaving Denver this afternoon, bound for his home state.
The interest in Pawlenty's whereabouts comes amidst news that McCain will debut his vice presidential pick in Dayton, OH tomorrow.
The Minnesota governor would not answer any questions about the vice presidential process, including a volley of queries about how recently he has spoken with his party's presidential nominee. "I refrain from answering any questions relating to the VP selection process," he said. "We're going to allow Sen. McCain to make that announcement."
Pawlenty's tea leaves offered little news to reporters hungry for the veep scoop, but don't miss this answer from another GOP surrogate present at the morning press conference. When Sen. Jon Kyl, McCain's Arizona colleague, was asked if the Republican Party would be deeply divided if McCain was to pick a pro-choice vice presidential nominee, he responded that his Arizona colleague is a "strong conservative."
"But" he added, "he has also willing to take on orthodoxies and to be a maverick at times. Certainly not to be President Bush on certain key issues. And I think the American people respect that."
"If the American people believe and the Republican Party believes that John McCain has good reasons, sound reasons, for making the judgments that he makes," Kyl continued, "then I think that they will be very very supportive of him regardless
(Excerpt) Read more at firstread.msnbc.msn.com ...
Who cares where he is...no one knows him anyway...so they’re not looking
Picking Pawlenty would be an outstanding move for McCain. Not only is Pawlenty a solid conservative on illegal immigration an issue in which McCain is weak, he would also virtually gurantee a win for McCain in Minnesota which would in effect hand McCain the Presidency if he can hang on to the traditional red states. Hopefully Johnny Mac won’t stab conservatives in the back again by nominating a liberal like Lieberman.
Can we scratch Polenta off the list yet?
Your tea leaves ain't working, Jon. A pro-choice candidate will be the death knell for the McCain candidacy.
Pawlenty just passed Romney at Intrade. Pawlenty 50, Romney 45.
Oh, please not Pawlenty. This guy is a boring pick and won’t bring Minnesota to McCain. Pawlenty could only scratch out 46% and a tight win in his re-election bid in 2006.
I do not think anything McCain does will hand him a victory. He has dissed his base so badly, for so long, over so many issues, we will not show up to vote.
I don’t have a problem with the Pawlenty pick, but saying that he’ll ‘virtually guarantee’ a win in MN isn’t really true.
If you look at Pawlenty’s election returns in MN, you’ll see that he’s had his own version of Perot helping him in each of his two elections. He did better this last time, than he did the first time, but he’s not a slam dunk without that third guy splitting things up.
Pawlenty barely won re-election in 2006 in a three person race against two DFLers. Had Hutchinson not run as an independent the Pawlenty most likely would have lost. There is no guarantee that he'll carry Minnesota for McCain, and he adds nothing to the ticket for carrying other states.
Naw, Intrade said Slick Willard was a total lock a while back. You guys said so.
I still think it’s Romney. McCain’s people have been handling his campaign very well so far with the great ads, etc. Romney would be the smart choice b/c of his strength on the economy and his appeal to the western states and Mich. He is well spoken and looks great. He also has lots of money and would energize alot of the base.
McCain has stabbed conservatives in the back far too many times for my liking, and I am only reluctanly voting for him in November. However, he is unfortunately the best we got this election. I’m hoping in 2012 we’ll get a conservative primary challenger like Eric Cantor or Tom Coburn, but until them unfortunately were gonna have to hope for the best with Juan McAmnesty.
It will be Pawlenty for sure, which is a lot better than some of the names thrown out there of course.
Not really a big fan, but like I said it could have been a lot worse. We could have received a total lib like Lieberman or the lib light Romney.
I didn’t know how close the race was in Minn, I just assumed that most candidates have a good shot in their home state. However Tim Pawlenty is a solid conservative and could pressure McCain into upholding his promise on securing the border. For that I still think he would be a good choice for VP.
There are folks in Pennsylvania that say the same thing, only they say it about Tom Ridge and Pennsylvania.
It’s Hillary
I’ve got nothing against him except that he’s a global warmer. But who isn’t these days? (Just all of us normal people I guess...)
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