Unimpressed By Palin’s Bus Tour, Pawlenty Goes After Obama: ‘Any Doofus Can Go To Washington’

Yesterday, I spanked Pawlenty pretty good and referred to him as “yawn material”. But, today he’s showing a little plain speaking spunk. I don’t know how far this is going to carry him. But, it’s a good thing to see.

Mdeiaite

After rolling out his campaign infrastructure with an elaborate video and a gaffe or two, Tim Pawlenty is going negative, mildly, and with polls showing almost anyone but Pawlenty is a viable Republican candidate, it may not be a terrible idea. Pawlenty ended the week attacking President Obama for his European trip on Twitter and even turning on potential candidate Sarah Palin.

Following up on the cattiest tweet in the Presidential campaign so far (“sorry to interrupt the European pub crawl, but what was your Medicare plan?”), Pawlenty visited CNN’s American Morning to elaborate on his campaign issues and react to his current poll numbers. He appeared happy that, despite the fact that “half the nation’s Republicans don’t know who I am,” he was still a viable candidate in the running, as early polls are “name ID more than anything.” If the polls were reliable, he joked, “Rudy Giuliani and Howard Dean would be presidents.”

With that in mind, asked if Palin’s weekend bus tour was worrisome to him, he seemed militantly unfazed: “This country isn’t going to be about rallies or you know bus tours or anything else,” Pawlenty said. “This is going to be about a country that is sinking in debt and deficit. We want to have a leader who has actually tackled those issues and doesn’t just talk about it.” He also noted that, while the current “exploratory” phases of other campaigns that may pop up are necessary, “soon we have to have a debate on the issues.”

“Any doofus can go to Washington and maintain the status quo and that’s what we’ve got in the White House and in Congress in terms of their attitude about their willingness to tackle these issues,” Pawlenty said. “If we’re not going to have leaders who are going to say that and do it and tell the American people, look them in the eye … then we’re all wasting our time.”

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