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Subscribe to RSSFormer Minnesota Gov. and GOP vice-presidential short-lister Tim Pawlenty said today that being the focus of vice presidential media speculation is "a little bit of déjà vu all over again." Pawlenty was passed over by John McCain in 2008 for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Pawlenty dodged questions in an interview with NBC's Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports about the vice-presidential process, but said, "I'm committed to Gov. Romney, not because I think I was looking to be vice president. I've said many times, I think I can best serve him in other ways. But anybody would be honored to be asked. The real issue isn't necessarily the particulars of a VP candidate … it's ‘does Barack Obama deserve re-election?’"
When Mitchell asked Pawlenty whether or not Romney should disclose more than two years of tax returns, Pawlenty responed, "Well, Mitt Romney has released, as you noted, two years’ worth of tax returns. And that's basically been the standard for Republican nominees for president."
Mitchell, in turn, pointed out that two years of returns is actually on the low end for GOP presidential nominees, far fewer than the dozen Romney’s father George Romney released when he ran for president in 1968 and certainly fewer than the 10 years released by President Obama.
Mitchell pointed out that Pawlenty would be unlikely to help Romney win Minnesota's 10 electoral votes, in contrast to Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who could possibly help in Romney's effort to bring his state's 18 crucial electoral votes. No Republican presidential nominee has won the presidency without winning Ohio.
"I love my state," Pawlenty said. "It's filled with great people. But, it unfortunately has the longest unbroken streak of voting for a Democrat for president of any state in the nation."
But he noted that geography isn't all that counts.
Pawlenty also addressed Former New Hampshire Gov. Sununu's fiery charge during a Romney campaign conference call today in which Sununu claimed in the context of talking about the economy, "I wish this president would learn how to be an American."
Sununu "wasn't as clear as he should have been, and issued a clarification," Pawlenty said.
But Pawlenty said he believed Sununu meant the president "doesn't really have a familiarity with what it means to be in the American entrepreneurial and private enterprise system.”
When Mitchell asked whether Pawlenty had "gotten the call from Boston or New Hampshire, or from Gov. Romney," Pawlenty responded, "I'm in contact with Gov. Romney from time to time. But this week, I'm focused on some yard work and some business things."
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Did T-Paw shave his mullet of yet again?
Tiny Tim - remind us again how many people DIED in the bridge collapse YOU allowed to happen?
Spread your bull@!$%# to the victims families...
On this crap;
Get back to me when you can support this...
feisty,
He still has the sideburns.
Fro the record, Tim Pawlenty is no Hubert H. Humphrey or Walter Mondale.
Northstar - talk about a mush-mouth POS...
You have my deepest sympathies for having to live through that freakin nightmare!
Just hearing T-paws name makes me want to gooo tooooo Sleeeeeee...ZZZZZZZZ
The way it sounds, Pawlenty doesn't want to be asked by Romney to be the VP.
Reason 1 He knows the futility of this race and doesn't want it following him later.
Reason 2 He truly doesn't like Romney.
Everyone suspects the Mitt is hiding something that would be very damaging to him on his tax returns. Even he eluded to that when he said that he didn't want to give any more information that could be used against him.
Sounds incriminating to me.
The only thing to be found in Romney's tax return will be that he is very rich.
We already know that.
His charitable contributions will embarrass Biden if that is possible.
Barrack Obama...FAILED LEADERSHIP...ONE TERM AND GONE
Feisty - You're stretching even more than usual to come up with negative things to say about Republicans. What's next: "Tiny Tim was responsible for the Gulf oil spill"?
Tiny Timpaw was the WORST Gov in Minn history, bar none!! He destroyed the school system, and property taxes hit the roof. He was also a total bafoon when our 35W bridge collapsed. Perfect fit, for mitt the flip!!
Feisty,
thanks, we are still trying to recover from the smoke and mirror budgets he passed.
The real question is do any of the republicans that have held our country hostage for the last 3 1/2 years deserve re-election? First with their obstruction the republicans have kept our country locked in limbo and then want you to blame President Obama for his policies that have never gotten in place.
The republicans keep talking about how our country was built. They seem to forget one big part. Our country was built on compromise. Nobody got everything they wanted but we compromised and had a government that worked for the people.
Riddle me this: The big republican question today is President Obama an American?
Think about this, President Obama is working to raise his own taxes for a better America for us all and Romney is working to lower his own taxes even when he knows it will be taking the food out of the mouths of children via the marvelous Ryan budget.
Which one do you think cares more for America and would be a better president?
Are you suggesting that because all those nasty Republicans were mean to him, little Barry deserves a “do-over?” This is our country we're talking about, not grade school. When Obama blames Republicans for his first-term failures, he is admitting that he would be equally incompetent in a second term: He is not getting any better at creating consensus, Republicans are not going to magically disappear, and his socialist plans for our economy are still going to be unacceptable to conservatives.
Every time the liberal loons claim the mean GOP is responsible for the massive failure of the private economy, they are at least admitting the fact there is a massive failure of the private economy.....LOL
What are you talking about? There is no socialist plan here. Republicans have always got some boogie-man name to scare people.
The rich have always been asked to contribute to the country that made them rich. After World War II it was up to 90%. Nobody called Eisenhower a socialist for asking the rich to contribute to their own country.
The republicans policies of even more tax cuts for Romney and more wars and driving our country back off the cliff where the republicans left us last time is not exactly my ideal of success. Apparently total acceptable to conservatives.
Wall street got bailed out and are doing fine, richer than ever so now it is time to really make those who lost their jobs, their homes, their life savings suffer and sacrifice even more and do without food so Romney and his wall street friends can have a bigger and permanent tax cuts.
I find it ironic that Romney won't show us his tax record and show us what taxes he really pays while he fights for more tax cuts for himself. Even Gingrich called Romney a liar and now Romney thinks we should take him at his word.
You know as well as I do that if this was President Obama refusing to release his tax records the republicans would be having hissy fits all over themselves.
Still using the "Occupy " logo? LOL...Whatever happened to the slackers who rioted , commited violence, and crapped on the sidewalk...known as Occupy Wall Street? The losers went home to their parents basement and back to sponging off others, like good lefties do...
After the leftist media built them up as a real movement..more like a bowel movement, they are flushed!
Socialism is a system whereby the ownership of capital, resources and production capability reside with and are controlled by the citizens. In theory, citizens have equal access to the products and resources and are compensated based on the amount of work performed.This form of economic control claims to have the benefit of allocating resources, services and compensation equitably among the population. In other words, the system purports to be fair to everyone and to provide everyone with an equal piece-of-the-pie.
I see you still carry your proud vaginal probe banner.
You will be voting for the party that claims to want to give women rights in other countries as the republicans take rights away from women in America.
You will be voting for the republican party that claims to love freedom and democracy as they suppress the vote as a way to win the next election.
You will be voting for Romney who would fight for tax cuts for himself no matter how many children do without food to pay for Romney's tax cuts.
I will be voting for President Obama who is fighting to raise his own taxes so we can create an America for all.
I know I own my own home, I have a job and pay taxes and am supposed to hate the poor. Unlike republicans I know America is only as great as the least of us. I'd feel dirty if I took a tax cut that I knew would cause children to suffer. It doesn't seem to bother Romney any as he gathers money to push the republican policies of austerity for the poor and tax cuts for the rich.
If you loved the bush days, you are going to love Romney as he has promised to bring them back.
Ahhh – NOW I understand, AF. You're just vomiting back a random assortment of leftist catch-phrases that some other idiots fed you. That had to be one of the most disjointed, illogical tirades I've ever read. You're not a Democrat by any chance, are you?
Romney's choice of running mate has got to be a really tough decision. Frequently presidential candidates will pick a doofus like Biden as their running mate to so they can look good by comparison. Other times they will pick a VP just to bring in a particular segment of the electorate, as with Walter Mondale's choice of Geraldine Ferraro. Romney recognizes that the success of any enterprise is dependent on having a top-notch management team, and so he will want someone who is smart and tough. Pawlenty falls in this last category.
How he balances those three factors will be interesting, to say the least.
I think what is more interesting is will Mitt ask for more years of tax returns to be a V.P. than he is willing to show of his own to the American public?
You didn't vet Palin and look what you got. Are you not going to vet Romney either?
As a liberal who wants Romney to lose. My advise is Romney you stick to your guns and don't ever show us any more of your tax returns.
I can't even imagine how ugly the republicans would be getting toward President Obama if the table were turned and it was him refusing to release his tax returns like all the rest of the presidential candidates.
"Andrea Mitchell , Democrat activist and liberal propagandist, still smarting from the smackdown she received from John Sununu, gleefully pointed out that Pawlenty would be unlikely to help Romney win Minnesota's 10 electoral votes, and said "nahh nahh, my hero Obama is gonna fix you"...
Looking at the VP handicapping, I find it curious the preponderance of Catholics. I associate Catholics as compassionate, concerned with social welfare and concerned with the plight of the disadvantaged. So what is up with these Catholic VP wannabees who seem to gravitate to the "I got mine, good luck on getting yours" club.
The Obama Administration spit in the face of religious freedom of Catholics and all religious groups with their regulations forcing them to pay for birth control, , and you claim Catholics should gravitate to the "Government is God" lefties?
You are delusional.
Bob
Catholics are more of the grocery store variety of worshipers. They take what they like and leave the rest on the shelf.
Your obsession with body orifices puts you in the company of the creationist literal interpretation of the bible crowd. These folks pretty much gravitate to each other because the rest of the world ignores them.
Even Willard keeps his distance now that he doesn't need you anymore to knock off the "liberal" republicans.
STOP BO VOTE ROMNEY
When is Mr. Obama going to release his college applications, so we can make sure they don't contain any lies? And when is he going to release his transcripts and papers he wrote so we can see what courses he focused on and the foundations of his political thoughts? Or is he afraid of the American people seeing what he really thinks, unfiltered through the spin machine? Seems to me that such information is far more important than tax returns.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Even though you're nothing but a political puppet, exlax ETCH-A-SKETCH is ONLY going to pick a VP that'll get him votes! HE'S GONNA NEED A BUNCH! This corrupt Republican HYPOCRITE is ONLY looking out for what they selected him for! We, the 99% American People, DID NOT SELECT HIM, we don't want him, he's even difficult to look at because his corruption shines right through his face! Lie upon lie! NEVER ENDING!
99% American People, vote 100% STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC and let's rid our selves of this corrupt Republican MONARCHY that has MADE SLAVES of US! All under the FALSE premises of "FREE ENTERPRISE" as exlax ETCH-A-SKETCH LIKES TO CALL IT, which is only free for the ONEPERCENTERS & THEIR OVERPAID CEO'S!
why doesn't msnbc cover Obama's speech about small business people not being successful on their own....if he didn't say it.....or if someone is lying about it.... we should hear your view on it.
As a resident of the state of Minnesota, I can personally attest to Pawlenty's ability to deliver fiery oratory (geez, we really need a "sarcasm" font) -- much as I tried to listen to him speak, I always found myself nodding off.
Romney and Pawlenty -- the political equivalent of beige.
As a person who lived in Minnesota and who was acquainted with Pawlenty, I can say without reservation that he would be the best choice of VP for Rmoney from the standpoint of ensuring the re-election of Obama. Pawlenty is driven by political ambition but very poor in terms of any leadership ability or talent for governance. He oversaw the precipitous decline of Minnesota in Education, infrastructure and business climate. His successors have [not unlike Obama's challenge after the Bush era] been tasked with trying to pull the state back together after his disastrous tenure as governor. Pawlenty would have been better as VP for McCain than Palin [his prior sycophantic foray], but only by the most minor degree. McCain rejected him because he was uninspiring and he remains so. If you are a Democrat, then by all means call upon Rmoney and the GOP to pick Pawlentey.
Another "Capital Communist". Out to FLEECE the Public.
It's time the national media and pundits actually talked with some Minnesotans about what kind of governor Pawlenty was, and stopped giving him a pass by saying he was a successful one. He wasn't. Check out the actual legacy in terms of budget fudging at the expense of education funds. Talk with some of the REAL Republicans like Jim Oberstar and former Governor Arne Carlson - who are personae non grata in today's Republican party. Timmie is not just boring, he's a poseur.
Ooops - senior moment. Said Oberstar was a Republican! Meant Ramstad.