Comments on: Minnesota Governor Pawlenty Not Running For Third Term

By: Jeb

Jeb — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:04:24 +0000

Pawlenty has now stated that he will abide by the court’s ruling on the Franken Coleman affair.
This whole extended battle over what was essentially a tie is yet more evidence that we should institute instant runoff elections.

By: Jeb

Jeb — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:42:20 +0000

The GOP put forth a moderate politician in 2008 and got thumped. They are going to return I believe to more conservative, right leaning ways which does not bode well for a moderate.

Maybe. I hear a lot of chatter about how the republicans need to move more to the right to shore up the base, but that is largely in right wing echo chambers so I don’t know how much that reflects popular opinion in the Republican primary electorate.
Our democracy needs a strong opposition party to function at its best. I think that moving hard right will further weaken a republican party that is already at its weakest in over 25 years and would likely lead to a longer period in the wilderness. While I don’t think that there is much problem with short periods of one party rule balanced by short periods of alternate party rule, extended periods of one party rule inevitably result in an even more insular political class that is even more prone to cronyism and corruption and that serves none of us on the outside well.
I know some will not believe it, but I do hope that the Republicans can get their act together in short order and become an effective opposition party. I think that in order to do so, particularly in the long term, some social conservative positions will have to take a back seat but YMMV.

By: Doomed

Doomed — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:59:46 +0000

In what way will he have to change who he is in order to succeed?

The GOP put forth a moderate politician in 2008 and got thumped. They are going to return I believe to more conservative, right leaning ways which does not bode well for a moderate.

By: Jeb

Jeb — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:08:53 +0000

Pawlenty is the type of politican that I think will not do well on the national stage because hes going to have to change who he is to succeed.

In what way will he have to change who he is in order to succeed?

By: Doomed

Doomed — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:50:17 +0000

Wyoming. It is one of the most Republican and Conservative states in the union. Yet it has had many, many democratic governors over the years including now.

The reason is they seem to be able to separate their local politics and the democrats that succeed in the state are moderate. Pawlenty is the type of politican that I think will not do well on the national stage because hes going to have to change who he is to succeed.

We shall see.

By: Jeb

Jeb — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:34:14 +0000

I would guess that Pawlenty will run in the Republican primary in 2012.
On the Coleman issue it doesn’t look like his support for Coleman to date is such that he would actively oppose the ruling of the Minn SC. It might be some small help to him in the primary if he did, but would be much more damaging in the general. I think that he is a smart enough politician to give Coleman enough support so as not to torpedo his chances in the primaries, but distance himself enough so as not to damage himself much in the general.

Just as McCain became the 2nd coming of Cheney during the election so Obama became the second coming of Che. Both men were caricatured and their actual differences magnified well beyond reality*. Our primary system and the fact that all political differences are boiled down to R v D disputes all but guarantees this outcome.

* I only see a handful of issues where there would have been significant policy differences.