Pawlenty: If GOP Screws up This Time, Go For a Third Party in 2012

Nick Gillespie | 10.23.2010 10:19 AM

Glenn Reynolds interviews Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R), who has plenty to say about how craptacular the GOP has been lo this century. About 13 minutes and well worth watching. Click to view.

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Colin 15 years ago

13 minutes of Pawlenty?

I'd rather watch saliva harden.
1. Tara 15 years ago
  
  Yeah, as a Minnesotan, Pawlenty is most of the reason I'm voting third-party THIS year (MNIP candidate Tom Horner... Not exactly a libertarian wet dream, but more pro-liberty than either Emmer or Dayton, both very typical examples of their government-loving parties.)
2. Citizens4BetterAmerica 15 years ago
  
  I invite you to check out this great video!
  We need to remember our true core American values....
  5 great reasons why true Americans are voting Republican this year!
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCaQQi_sxOM
J su D 15 years ago

Why wait? We all know they'll start by worrying about the gays getting married, medical reefer and finding new ways to subvert the 4th and 5th amendments.

I'm a third party or leave it blank voter. Screw the two party system. It has failed.
1. Almanian 15 years ago
  
  I'm with you, J sub D...except I will vote for the odd D or R.
  1. juris imprudent 15 years ago
    
    Ha, I only vote for the even D or R! I cancel you out.
2. Joe R. 15 years ago
  
  I'm in agreement with Pawlenty, I just think he got the date wrong.
  1. Rrabbit 15 years ago
    
    Should have been 2004 rather than 2012. Or maybe 1966.
TheHyperMind 15 years ago

Came for bold statement about GOP. Fell asleep around 7 minutes. TL;DW

Lord, Pawlenty is boring.
Lost in AZ 15 years ago

Gov. Pawlenty, please explain to me how maintaining DADT is going to help pull us out of recession.

http://thecolu.mn/2638/pawlenty-i-support-dont-ask-dont-tell
1. Jeffersonian 15 years ago
  
  Gov. Pawlenty, please explain to me how maintaining DADT is going to help pull us out of recession.
  
  It will help keep gays in the all-important hairdressing, floral and internet gadfly industries.
  1. Interior Decorator 15 years ago
    
    DADT will be bad for my business since nobody hires straights in my line of work.
    1. John Gault 15 years ago
      
      I'm confused, not sexually, btw. How is DADT bad for interior decorator business?
      1. zoltan 15 years ago
        
        Less homosexuals in the military equals more competition for interior decorator jobs? I didn't get it either.
sloopyinca 15 years ago

Isn't he just positioning himself as the next "3rd option" since he trails so many of the mainstream R's that are thinking about running in 2012?

What really pisses me off now is that Ron Paul ran 4 years too early. He'd run all over either party's candidates today. Any rumors out there on a 2012 run?
1. J sub D 15 years ago
  
  No. As much as I like the guy's honesty and most of his positions, there is no way on Odin's green Earth that Ron Paul can get elected president.
  1. sloopyinca 15 years ago
    
    I would have agreed with you up till 9 months ago. People have started to trend that way since the stimulus failed and Obamacare became scrutinized.
    
    Big Government is more reviled than Big Oil, Wall Street and everything else, and that plays into Ron Paul's strengths. Add to that more Americans see Afghanistan and Iraq as a waste of time and money, and you have a chance for his ideas to be taken seriously.
    
    No, I would have to disagree in this political climate. Hell, if the government cuts in England start to pay off his ideas will become even more popular here because it will be an example (albeit a poor one to any educated person) that smaller is better.
    1. Richie the Real 15 years ago
      
      I think it is so cute the way that RP supporters retain their hopes in the face of cold reality.
      
      As admirable as RP is in many ways, he is not that great a spokesman for his ideas. Any effective evangelist for limited government will need to have kevlar skin an inch thick, be bull headed with a titanium reinforced skull, wear a slab of concrete on his back, have the courage of a mother ferret protecting her young from a grizzly bear and more charisma than a basket of puppies. RP doesn't make the cut.
      1. wylie 15 years ago
        
        will need to have kevlar skin an inch thick...
        
        I think DARPA is working on such a candidate...
        
        Xenocles 15 years ago
        
        +1
      2. sloopyinca 15 years ago
        
        Please. Obama had none of those properties and he survived the Clinton machinery's character assassinations. Of course, a complicit and effete media didn't hurt.
        
        Nope, I gotta disagree here. In this political climate, he will get a lot of support just by being anti-Government. Once his foot's in the door, the substance can overcome the style because Americans are getting tired of the opposite dynamic winning the day.
        
        Richie the Real 15 years ago
        
        Cute, cute,
        as a button ...
        
        Ted S. 15 years ago
        
        Of course, a complicit and effete media didn't hurt.
        
        And what limited-government candidate is going to hat a complicit media, pray tell?
        
        Fuck! 15 years ago
        
        Obama doesn't have a Chris Mathews-esque voice though.
    2. jacob 15 years ago
      
      The problem Ron Paul has is his most vocal critics are the establishment/neocon/evangelical Repubs. I'm with J sub D on this one.
    3. Nash 15 years ago
      
      The problem with Ron Paul is that he isn't trying to actually be President. He's running to educate people, not win the office. He knows good and well that saying stuff like "Bring ALL the troops home" and "ABOLISH the Income Tax and replace it with NOTHING" isn't going to get him elected.
      
      That doesn't mean reducing troops levels and lowering taxes aren't great ideas, but going from where we are to Ron Paul's ideas immediately is a scorched earth political strategy that most Americans aren't going to accept.
  2. obijuan 15 years ago
    
    He had a much better chance than McCain. Ron Paul called the crash. McCain was still saying that the "fundamentals of the economy are strong" as late at September 2008.
    1. Richard Nous 15 years ago
      
      McCain would probably be President today if he would have suspended his campaign to go oppose TARP instead of supporting it. McCain's campaign was run by fucking amateurs posing as professionals.
      
      "I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole." -John McCain
      1. Richie the Real 15 years ago
        
        McCain would probably be President today if he would have suspended his campaign to go oppose TARP instead of supporting it. were not John McCain.
        
        FTFY
        
        Richard Nous 15 years ago
        
        Indeed!
        
        He was the prophetic John the Baptist ushering in the Messiah.
2. Tara 15 years ago
  
  Pawlenty has is a tall man with good hair, which usually is enough to give you a handful of cards and a chair at the table in a Republican primary, but he has several things going against him if he wants to win the ground game in the "Tea Party" era.
  
  1. The Phone Call. A couple years before becoming governor of Minnesota, Pawlenty was in a primary fight to run for Senator. Dick Cheney called him personally and asked him to step aside and let Norm Coleman (seen as the stronger candidate) get the nod, in exchange for a promise of national-party support in a future race, which turned out to be the Governor's race. He took that deal without hesitation. This established him rather firmly as a Bush Administration toadie.
  
  2. Wind farms and ethanol. There has yet to be a stupid energy policy which Pawlenty hasn't embraced with wild enthusiasm.
  
  3. Dullness. Seriously, the guy is human Sominex.
SIV 15 years ago

Nobody's called Glenn Reynolds a pro-torture neo-con hack yet?

Fuckin' Slackers
1. Jay 15 years ago
  
  Sorry, I was out shopping.
  
  But he *is* a torture supporting war monger; I don't get what it is with Nick and his man crush on Glenn Reynolds.
  
  /Jay
  1. nj 15 years ago
    
    Yeah, Gillespie's love for Reynolds is perplexing. He is just another republican apologist.
    1. zeebs 15 years ago
      
      Does anyone have insight on that? Why the love for Glenn "Let's Invade Canada" Reynolds? I do not understand. Not even a little.
CJ 15 years ago

Why would I need another two years of GOP failures on record to help me decide when they have so many decades of history already?
1. Fuck! 15 years ago
  
  During the Bush years an Illinois pol (Denny Haskert) spent the GOP into the minority party, same is basically true of Obama's rubber stamp controlling the purse strings. Coincidence? I think not.
  
  The bipartisan Illinois motto of Illinois pols is "bribery, its how things get done".
  
  No wonder why Denny was porky the pig when speaker because on his way out he cashed in on his favors and got a federally funded highway passed that happens to be right in the area he owned a bunch of land.
  
  Bush was only interested in keeping the war machine going so he forgot he had a veto pen.
  
  We'll see if the pattern gives us a trifecta in 2012 if Harry looses this one to Angle and Dick Durbin takes over as majority leader.
Ayn_Randian 15 years ago

"Just give me one more chance, baby. I swear I'll change."
1. Cytotoxic 15 years ago
  
  So the GOP is now a mindhive? This is one person, and he should be judged as an individual, not as part of the red-blue BS dynamic.
  1. SIV 15 years ago
    
    The GOP is Nancy_Randian's fantasy common-law husband. "What do you tell an Objectivist with two black eyes?"
    1. Brett L 15 years ago
      
      Objectivist heroines love that shit.
  2. Ayn_Randian 15 years ago
    
    Except this is the same spiel Republicans give to small-government supporters every election.
    
    "Vote third party...next time. This time it's 'too important'".
    1. Cytotoxic 15 years ago
      
      My point is that the decent condidates, like Angle, should get our votes while the Paladinos shouldn't. For gridlock!
Kevin 15 years ago

I have heard this noise about "going third party" from a few others on that side in the last few weeks. It won't happen. Most Republican voters are drones who will do what they are told regardless of how the upcoming Republican Congress will continue the massive growth/spending in our government.

In a perfect world, the Republican Party will collapse and be replaced with some entity that will actually act on an agenda of small, limited, cost-effective government (Hopefully, without the social con bullshit).

The GOP only speaks of shrinking government while campaigning. Once in charge, they are NO different than the Democrats.
1. Cytotoxic 15 years ago
  
  To be fair, they were in power for only one period of time. And if all the GOP supporters are such drones, why are Castle and Bennet now unemployed?
2. Slap the Enlightened! 15 years ago
  
  Well, the Constitution Party seems to be doing quite well in Colorado.
3. John Gault 15 years ago
  
  I hesitate to say this. Given a viable third party candidate or a conservative candidate, it seems Republican voters go for it - if they are for limited government. What they do after gaining office is a problem common to most political parties.
Xeones 15 years ago

Once his foot's in the door, the substance can overcome the style because Americans are getting tired of the opposite dynamic winning the day.

[citation needed]
James Anderson Merritt 15 years ago

Why wait until 2012?
1. prolefeed 15 years ago
  
  They've already indicated how they intend to screw up by refusing to say which entitlements, if any, they intend to cut.
  
  You can't balance the budget without raising taxes if you leave SS, Medicare, etc. on a course of automatic runaway growth.
  1. prolefeed 15 years ago
    
    I vote LP whenever they're on the ballot, and either blank ballot the rest of the races or vote for the lesser of two evils if one is conspicuously more evil than the other.
    1. Mr. FIFY 15 years ago
      
      I'm tired of the left using the rubber-stamp question "well, what would you cut, specifically?"... apparently, "everything" is not the answer they want to hear, because it would eat into their favorite handout programs/voter-bribing schemes.
James 15 years ago

He forgot to mention the other reasons his economy is strong:
1. No housing bubble and subsequent collapse
2. Far away from the other US border
3. Relatively smaller minority population
Failure to acknowledge that his state has been more than a little lucky is a bit dishonest, in my opinion.
1. Tara 15 years ago
  
  As loathe as I am to rush to his defense, everything you just said about Minnesota is equally true of Michigan and Ohio.
  
  So no, you don't get to claim that Minnesota is doing well because of a lack of brown people. Nice troll, though.
  1. James 15 years ago
    
    Don't know if you are checking back on this, but, actually, Minnesota does have a significantly lower black population rate than the two states you mentioned: Minnesota 3.4% vs. 11.4% for Ohio and 14.1% for Michigan. And, I don't think it is a particularly prejudicial or racist view to note that black people do have higher unemployment rates than white people.
    
    Hispanic population rates are all within about 1% of each other--MN 3.4, OH 2.7, MI 3.3.
    1. Ivan 15 years ago
      
      "Minnesota has the largest Hmong,Somali and Liberian communities in the United States."
      
      From: http://news.newamericamedia.or.....c1587cf549
      1. James 15 years ago
        
        Same paragraph talks about how Minnesota is less diverse than the rest of the nation, with 9% of people identifying themselves as non-white.
2. SIV 15 years ago
  
  more than a little lucky
  
  Are you saying Minnesota "won life's lottery"?
  1. James 15 years ago
    
    No, I actually think a lot of work has gone into the success of Minnesota.
3. John Gault 15 years ago
  
  So, according to you, 2/3rds of the answer to fiscal problems are less minorities [I assume you mean non-whites], and less illegal alien Mexicans.
  1. Marshall Gill 15 years ago
    
    So, according to you, 2/3rds of the answer to fiscal problems are less minorities [I assume you mean non-whites], and less illegal alien Mexicans.
    
    Are you saying that since a majority of illegal aliens are "non-white" (even though they are Caucasian) you can't be opposed or you are a racist? Opposition to crime is racist if you are not a member of the majority of the offenders??!!
    
    Could you please provide me with a list of the race of the majority of offenders of each crime is so that I can know if my opposition to it is racism? If I am opposed to murder but not a member of the ethnic (not racial) group who commits the most murders it must simply be racism?
    
    Your handle is inappropriate.
    1. Ayn_Randian 15 years ago
      
      Are you saying that since a majority of illegal aliens are "non-white" (even though they are Caucasian) you can't be opposed or you are a racist?
      
      When it comes to this particular victimless crime, yes, you are probably xenophobic at a minimum.
  2. James 15 years ago
    
    That's not what I mean; I am not advocating for fewer minorities. I am acknowledging that states with higher minority populations are going to have worse economic problems. Mississipi, for example.
    
    I care little about the illegal alien issue; I do generally tend to side with Reason on the issue and see immigrants as a positive to the country.
rhea 15 years ago

Election Day is fast approaching. Vote for a third party, they might come as a surprise. More and more surprises to come?

We help Americans move to Asia for jobs and prosperity. Learn more at http://www.pathtoasia.com
GOP 15 years ago

Come on baby, take me back. If I hit you again, you can find another man.
Citizens4BetterAmerica 15 years ago

I invite you to check out this great video!
We need to remember our true core American values....
5 great reasons why true Americans are voting Republican this year!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCaQQi_sxOM

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