Thoughts On Governor Pawlenty As McCain's VP

I have been betting that McCain will pick Governor Pawlenty of Minnesota for some time as his VP. It is a choice that I would like.

I think this interesting post at the Corner points out both his assets and perhaps drawbacks

Pawlenty [Rich Lowry]
I meant to post this e-mail from a friend a week or two ago:
Hi Rich-
Pawlenty was the lunch speaker at ALEC, which is a national convention of conservative state legislators. This is my first exposure to him as big room speaker. A few thoughts:

1) He's wonky and deeply thoughtful about policy. Remember when you criticized Romney 18 months ago for "check the box conservatism"? Pawlenty's was an impressive outside-the-box conservatism.

2) He bored the crowd. I think the crowd wanted red meat, and they wanted to applaud. He didn't really offer applause lines at all.

3) The thoughts were extemporaneous, nuanced, and pretty obviously his own. I sense that he's thinking about 3 levels deeper than most state elected officials.

4) I had worried that he might have too regional an accent, or be overly boyish compared to McCain. It's still a concern, but not in the way Jindal would be. He seemed like a grown up, and his accent was barely noticeable.

5) If he's the choice, there would be no "Quayle problems"...he doesn't seem like a lightweight on governing. On the other hand, he's not now the political athlete that Romney and Huckabee have become. He's probably a blue collar version of where Romney was 18 months ago, only with more authentic conservative credentials.

I think the above is very fair and puts the good and bad. The New York Times had a very good balanced article on him last week that is worth reading that I think basically hits some of these points at Pawlenty Looks to National Stage

If you ask me he is the most qualified of the conservatives to be in the running for NUMBER 2. However will he sell?

Also these folks often take the role of the attack dog saying things that the guy at the head of the ticket will not say. Like it or not sometimes that is a crucial role. I am not sure we should expect that from this guy.

However I really like him. It is a shame we cannot combine Romney, Huckabee, Palin, and Jindal into one person but we cannot. I think this guy might be it!!

Also he Governor of a state the GOP would love to pick up!!! I keep hearing the talking heads say the GOP cannot pick up this state even if he is on the ticket. I am not so sure of that. Minnesota sort of came into play late in the game in 2004 and I think with him on the ticket it is doable