Know Your Candidates: Tim Pawlenty

Tim Pawlenty was first touted as a presidential candidate for the 2008 race, and after it became clear that he wasn't going to run, he was frequently mentioned as an A-list candidate for the slot of John McCain's running mate. McCain seems to have not ever seriously considered him, because he wasn't mavericky enough. But Pawlenty also went out of his way to discourage people from mentioning his name in connection with the job, falling back on the handy sound bite that if he ran in a presidential race, it would be "for president, not vice-president." (For a while that line was to Pawlenty as "Ayyyyyy!" was to Fonzie.) One suspects that the talk of Pawlenty's supposed attractiveness as a vice-presidential candidate may have touched a nerve. Pawlenty seems more like a vice-presidential type because, in a field composed of spinning dervishes and self-immolating human fireworks displays, he seems a little boring. In comparison with the likes of Gingrich, Palin, and John Bolton, that's kind of a plus. The downside is that when he tries to be just a little bit exciting, inadvertent self-parody is instantly achieved.

Those who think that Pawlenty's boringness makes him seem like the responsible, grown-up candidate are gambling that he's boring enough to take the curse off his most unpopular, reactionary ideas. Like a great many evil people and no good ones to speak of, he is a broad-based antigay bigot, who both opposes granting equal marriage rights to gays and supports the reinstitution of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. By comparison, his position on abortion is fairly nuanced: he thinks it should be outlawed, of course, but would allow for exceptions in the case of rape and incest. But he is so open to new thinking on the issue that, when he was Governor of Minnesota, his state's health department's website featured the suggestion that abortion might cause breast cancer.

More nuanced still is his take on labor unions. Last fall, when Republicans were beginning to roll out their meme that public sector unions ought to be destroyed since government workers are inherently evil, Pawlenty composed an ope-ed for the Wall Street Journal in which he confessed that he himself became "a union member when I worked at a grocery store to help put myself through school" and argued that "The rise of the labor movement in the early 20th century was a triumph for America's working class. In an era of deep economic anxiety, unions stood up for hard-working but vulnerable families, protecting them from physical and economic exploitation." Having gone far off the Republican reservation with this Guthriesque tribute to the workin' man, he then noted that "Much has changed" and reminded his readers that anyone drawing a gummint check is the scum of the earth. "The moral case for unions—protecting working families from exploitation—does not apply to public employment," he wrote. "Unionized public employees are making more money, receiving more generous benefits, and enjoying greater job security than the working families forced to pay for it with ever-higher taxes, deficits and debt." I do not know if public employees would suddenly acquire the moral right to union protections if Pawlenty and his brothers succeed in their efforts to see to it that they make less money, receive less generous benefits, and enjoy shakier job security, but somehow I suspect not. But at least he had stepped away from the Republican fold who agree with SCTV owner and president Guy Caballero that all "unions are the work of the devil." Pawlenty believes that the only unions that retain a measure of strength should be abolished and driven into the dirt, but he has great affection and respect for the unions that have been effectively powerless for the past thirty years or so.

By announcing his candidacy when he did. Pawlenty offers aid and comfort to the supporters of Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, who also looks a little like Toby from The Office and who was the dream candidate for many who pine for a Republican who no one can imagine having ever inquired about doing a celebrity cameo on Miami Vice. The key difference between Daniels and Pawlenty in terms of appeal to pundits and wonks is precisely that Daniels wasn't running, and still isn't. Like other dream candidates of past years, such as Colin Powell, Mario Cuomo, and Bill Bradley, the fantasy candidate's appeal is precisley that he isn't running, and probably doesn't have what it takes to win a presidential election; as Bill Clinton found out the hard way, there is no surer and faster way to earn displeasure in the eyes of wonks and be judged as greasy, twisted, corrupt, and skeevy--in short, a politician, ewwww!!--than to turn out to want high office enough to actually grow the stones and acquire the skills necessary to attain it. (Conversely, there is no surer sign of an essential lack of seriousness at one's core than to fall in love with one of these perennial dream non-candidates, unless it's to feel a sliver of respect for one of the perennial spoilers, like Nader.) The best way to utterly destroy one's reputation and forever lose all of that magical appeal is to make the mistake of actually running for president just once, as Bill Bradley found out, also the hard way. (The second best way is to let people catch you enjoying the attention by publicly overplaying your Hamlet act, as Cuomo had done by 1992.) What is Tim Pawlenty about to find out the hard way? Stay tuned.