Tim Pawlenty, Bragging About His '05 Government Shutdown, is Toast

by Abe Sauer

How done is former governor of Minnesota Tim Pawlenty with his own state? Today the candidate for the 2012 Republican nomination released an ad bragging about how, as governor, he shut down state government in 2005.

Pawlenty knows his own former Minnesota Republican party is screaming bloody murder because the Democratic governor elected to follow him just shut down state government, right? Yes, Pawlenty knows and doesn’t care; as a GOP nominee he stands to accomplish the impossible in Minnesota.

Recent poll numbers show that Pawlenty wouldn’t even carry his native Minnesota, a swing state no less, against Obama, with votes going 51 percent for Obama and only 43 percent for T-Paw. Sure, Bachmann, also a Minnesotan, loses 56% to 35%, but she’s a joke candidate, of whom the press will tire soon. Pawlenty is a guy everyone talked about as a serious possibility.

Just how terrible is this? Minnesota is the only — only! — state that did not go for Reagan in 1984 because it voted instead for native son Walter Mondale.

The one state that did not vote for the Gipper in his prime because it felt obligated to stick with the homeboy now will not vote for its own once-governor. Jeez.

Abe Sauer can be reached at abesauer at gmail dot com.