fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Tim Pawlenty’s Very Bad Week

A successful economic speech, one rival’s campaign implosion and another’s decision to skip an influential Iowa straw poll has given Tim Pawlenty a very good week. ~Michael O’Brien Perhaps we are using different definitions of successful, but wouldn’t a successful economic speech be one that was not mocked by conservatives as wishful thinking and fantasy? […]

A successful economic speech, one rival’s campaign implosion and another’s decision to skip an influential Iowa straw poll has given Tim Pawlenty a very good week. ~Michael O’Brien

Perhaps we are using different definitions of successful, but wouldn’t a successful economic speech be one that was not mocked by conservatives as wishful thinking and fantasy? It’s true enough that Pawlenty has entered the good graces of The Wall Street Journal editors with his tax proposals, but that is not automatically going to win him many admirers in Iowa. Now that Romney has decided that he will skip the straw poll, that potentially makes it easier for Pawlenty to gain some ground, but it also raises expectations that he will do that much better. It’s not as if Romney is giving up on Iowa entirely, and Romney knows very well the limited value of spending time and resources on winning the straw poll.

Should Gingrich’s implosion lead to a Rick Perry candidacy, as many have been speculating since yesterday, Pawlenty may find himself in greater difficulty than he did before. The implosion of Gingrich’s campaign revealed a candidate who is not terribly serious about his presidential bid, so Pawlenty is probably worse off now if he has to head off a challenge from a much more formidable candidate in Perry.

Besides, Pawlenty has more than Romney and Gingrich to worry about in Iowa. Antle is right in his assessment of the importance of Iowa for Pawlenty. He is also correct that Pawlenty has yet to move into the top tier, and he is in danger of remaining behind several of the other “marginal” candidates. Should Perry enter, there is no particular reason why Pawlenty would become the “plausible” alternative to Romney.

Advertisement

Comments

The American Conservative Memberships
Become a Member today for a growing stake in the conservative movement.
Join here!
Join here