Candidate - Tim Pawlenty

[Geee]

“Hope is not a plan.”

 

 

 

He served two terms as the 39th Governor of the U.S. state of Minnesota from 2003 to 2011. Pawlenty was re-elected with 46% of the vote. He was succeeded in 2010 by Democrat Mark Dayton. He previously served five terms in the Minnesota House of Representatives spanning the ten year period of 1993 to 2003 for District 38B, during which time he was also the Majority Leader.

 

On the Issues:

 

American businesses pay the second highest tax rates in the world. That's a recipe for failure, not adding jobs and economic growth. We should cut the corporate tax rate by more than half. I propose reducing the rate to 15 percent from 35 percent, recognizing that the tax code is littered with special interest handouts, carve-outs, subsidies and loopholes that should be eliminated.

 

But just changing business tax rates is not enough. That's because we know most job growth will come from small and medium-size businesses, and their owners are taxed under individual tax rates, not corporate rates. So, pro-job and pro-growth tax reform must include individual tax reform as well.

 

Five percent economic growth over 10 years would generate $3.8 trillion dollars in new tax revenues. With that, we would reduce projected deficits by 40 percent — all before we made a single budget cut.

---

 

A balanced federal budget should not just be a political sound bite. As one of 49 governors operating with balanced budget requirements, I balanced every budget in my two terms as governor of Minnesota. I know the only reason the Minnesota legislature ever gave me a balanced budget was because, under Minnesota's Constitution, it had to.

 

That's why I support a constitutional amendment that not only requires a balanced federal budget, but also caps federal spending as a percentage of our economy, around 18 percent of gross domestic product.

 

But passing a constitutional amendment will take awhile. The crisis that we face requires immediate action. That's why I have proposed capping and block-granting Medicaid to the states, raising the Social Security retirement age for the next generation and slowing the rate of growth in defense spending.

 

I will also call for Congress to grant the president the temporary and extraordinary authority to freeze spending at current levels, and impound up to 5 percent of federal spending until the budget is balanced.

---

 

What's more, the same competitive efficiency that revolutionized America's private sector over the last three decades should at long last be applied to every corner of the federal bureaucracy.

 

In particular, one efficiency program, Lean Six Sigma, already has a proven track record of using performance-based management practices to streamline organizational programs at the CIA, the Pentagon, and — as I can personally attest — various agencies of the Minnesota state government. If we applied this approach throughout all federal agencies, we could save up to 20 percent in many of the programs' budgets.

 

Cutting taxes and spending is only the beginning. The real slog of the next administration will be an unrelenting trench battle against overregulation. Obamacare, financial reform and Environmental Protection Agency overreach are all weighing down our economy; we should require sunsetting of all federal regulations, unless sustained by a vote of Congress.

 

We can fix our economy. Our people are ready to get back to work. We just need to give them tools to get there and to get the government out of the way.

 

Tim Pawlenty

Presidential 2012

Website

 

Links to the Candidate News Threads

 

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Ron Paul: Candidate

[Geee]

Milbank: Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's half-truths

 

It was Tim Pawlenty's moment of truth. Actually, several moments of truth.

 

"We're going to have to look the American people in the eye and tell them the truth, and that's what I'll be talking about," the former Minnesota governor proclaimed to Erica Hill on CBS' "Early Show" on Monday as he formally began his quest for the Republican presidential nomination.

 

"President Obama unfortunately doesn't have the courage to look the American people in the eye and tell them the tough truth," Pawlenty informed Matt Lauer on NBC's "Today" show. "I'll do that."

 

In a phone interview with Hot Air blogger Ed Morrissey, he promised "a serious, tell-the- truth, courageous message." And in Des Moines, Pawlenty delivered an announcement speech, "A Time for Truth," that contained 16 instances of the word "truth" in the prepared text.

 

But just an hour after unburdening himself of these truths in Iowa, the candidate went on Rush Limbaugh's radio show and told a bit of a fib. The talk-show host, who serves as the unofficial gatekeeper to the Republican nomination, presented Pawlenty with a 2006 newspaper article in which he said that "the era of small government is over" and that "government has to be more proactive, more aggressive."

 

He claimed that he had merely been referencing somebody else's words — "I didn't say those words myself" — that his political opponents had "pushed that falsely," and that the newspaper was motivated by political bias and was forced to issue a correction.

 

To verify Pawlenty's truthfulness, I looked up the article, from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and discovered that Pawlenty had taken some liberties with the facts. The article is all about Pawlenty's efforts as governor to take on drug and oil companies and other practitioners of "excessive corporate power." It includes his boast that many ideological Republicans "don't even talk to me anymore" because of his support for things such as the minimum wage.

 

"The era of small government is over," Pawlenty told the newspaper. "I'm a market person, but there are certain circumstances where you've got to have government put up the guardrails or bust up entrenched interests before they become too powerful. . . . Government has to be more proactive, more aggressive."

 

The newspaper did issue a "clarification," but only to say that Pawlenty's quote about small government was "in reference to a point" made by conservative writer David Brooks — one that Pawlenty, from his other comments, obviously agreed with.

 

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_18131389

[Geee]

In Florida, Tim Pawlenty calls for entitlement reform

 

 

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Deep in senior-rich Florida, Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty called Tuesday for fundamental changes in Social Security and other entitlement programs he said are not sustainable in their current form

 

Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor positioning himself as the GOP race’s blunt talker, said in a Facebook town hall meeting and a session with reporters that if elected he would gradually raise the Social Security retirement age and phase out cost-of-living increases for wealthier recipients. Current retirees and those close to retirement would be unaffected, he said.

 

"We’re here to look them in the eye, and look young people in the eye, and tell them what needs to be done," he said. "These are reasonable things that can be done, but we need to tell the truth about it."

 

 

Pawlenty officially entered the race Monday and assured supporters in Des Moines, Iowa, that he would tell hard truths that President Barack Obama would not. One was his opposition to ethanol subsidies, not a popular stand in corn-dependent Iowa. In Florida, his proposals for overhauling entitlement programs aimed at seniors were similarly meant in part to show him as fearless in taking on politically untouchable issues.(snip)

 

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view.bg?articleid=1340487

[Geee]

Tim Pawlenty's crusade for truth

 

 

THAT electric tingle running down you're spine is the thrill of Tim Pawlenty, former governor of Minnesota, speaking truth to power. Mr Pawlenty officially announced his bid for the Republican Party presidential nomination in an outdoor speech Monday in Des Moines, and he pledged to keep it real. Can you handle the truth, America? That is the question, the challenge, Mr Pawlenty's announcement speech tacitly put to us. Will we disappoint him? Will ethanol-loving Iowans?

 

Mr Pawlenty's delivery was hardly electrifying, but then he works hard not to appear too exciting. Graced with the sober mien of the Minnesotan male, Mr Pawlenty calls to mind the old joke about the Norwegian farmer who loved his wife so much he told her. Conor Friedersdorf, having endured Mr Pawlenty's campaign bio, "The Courage to Stand", suggests the book might be more aptly titled "Well Adjusted Man From Loving Family Is Hardworking, Unlikely To Do Anything Terribly Objectionable". David Weigel observes that Mr Pawlenty's soporific reputation is so well-entrenched that "He's actually had to field questions about how boring he is." So Monday's big moment demanded a dramatic gesture to grab the attention of the yawning political media, and Mr Pawlenty delivered. He called for the end of ethanol subsidies in Iowa, to a crowd of Iowans, which is a bit like dropping your trousers before a congregation of octogenarian Mennonites.

 

"The hard truth is that there are no longer any sacred programmes," Mr Pawlenty said in the speech, titled "A time for truth".

 

The truth about federal energy subsidies, including federal subsidies for ethanol, is that they have to be phased out. We need to do it gradually. We need to do it fairly. But we need to do it. ...It's not only ethanol. We need to change our approach to subsidies in all industries. It can't be done overnight. The industry has made large investments, and it wouldn't be fair to pull the rug out from under it immediately. But we must face the truth that if we want to invite more competition, more investment, and more innovation into an industry—we need to get government out. We also need the government out of the business of handing out favours and special deals. The free market, not freebies from politicians, should decide a company's success. So, as part of a larger reform, we need to phase out subsidies across all sources of energy and all industries, including ethanol. We simply can't afford them anymore.

 

http://www.economist.com/node/21518354

[Valin]

Don't count him out.

 

Tim Pawlenty on Hugh Hewitt

[Geee]

Pawlenty needs to pick right enemies, then fight them

 

 

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty could position himself as the front-runner for the Republican nomination and be a serious contender in the general election -- if he can make the right enemies.

Pawlenty got off on the right foot this week by traveling to Iowa to call for the end of ethanol subsidies. On Thursday, he was scheduled to attack bailouts, speaking at Wall Street, of all places. He sees that there's a political opening for a conservative Republican willing to fight against the malefactors of great wealth who profit off big government -- the corporate welfare queens.

 

Obama has spent two years pretending to battle special interests, all while institutionalizing bank bailouts, letting drug companies write health care "reform," handing out trillions in subsidies to tech and green energy companies, supporting ethanol favors, giving tax dollars to failed automakers, granting special breaks to politically connected labor unions, and setting off a feeding frenzy on K Street. Americans see that the politically connected are thriving at everyone else's expense while politicians call for common sacrifice.

 

For Pawlenty's schtick of "bold truth-telling" to carry weight, he must go after the subsidy sucklers and bailout bandits. If big banks, energy companies, and K Street lobbyists start complaining about Pawlenty, we'll know he's doing it right.

 

Pawlenty recently has shown a limited-government, populist streak. On the way out of the governor's mansion, he picked a fight with his state's business lobby by announcing he would reject some Obamacare aid that came with strings attached. The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, the Minnesota Hospital Association, the Minnesota Council of Health Plans, and the Minnesota Medical Association all chastised Pawlenty for denying them the subsidy dollars.

 

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/05/pawlenty-needs-pick-right-enemies-then-fight-them

[Pepper]

Geee!

 

Thanks for these candidates' news threads.

 

If we can restrict ourselves to just posting on these , it will become a straw poll of sorts, right?

 

 

Candidate News Threads courtesy of Geee:

 

Herman Cain: Candidate News Thread

 

Newt Gingrich: Candidate News Thread

 

Jon Huntsman Jr: Candidate News Thread

 

Gary E Johnson: Candidate News Thread

 

Ron Paul: Candidate News Thread

 

Tim Pawlenty: Candidate News Thread

 

Mitt Romney: Candidate News Thread

 

RIck Santorum: Candidate News Thread

[Geee]

Tim Pawlenty says he'd endorse Paul Ryan budget plan

 

Reporting from Washington — Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Thursday that he would sign off on Paul Ryan's controversial budget plan if elected president.

 

Speaking to reporters in New Hampshire, Pawlenty emphasized, however, that he would offer his own fiscal blueprint in the coming campaign that would be different from the Wisconsin Republican's.

 

"We'll have our own plan. But ... if I can't have that, and the bill came to my desk and I had to choose between signing or not Congressman Ryan's plan, of course I would sign it," he said, according to a transcript distributed by his campaign.

 

After Pawlenty launched a campaign with the pledge to speak honestly about the nation's challenges, Democrats made a point of trying to elicit a definitive position from him on Ryan's plan, the most controversial aspect of which is an overhaul of the Medicare program.

 

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich now infamously was tripped up when asked if Republicans should continue pressing for Ryan's plan even after the public backlash against it; he called it "right-wing social engineering," but later said he would support it.

 

Pawlenty's endorsement of it came with the caveat that his own proposal "will have some differences," specifically on Medicare. He also said he would address Social Security, which Ryan's plan does not.

 

 

http://www.whotv.com/news/nationworld/la-pn-tim-pawlenty-ryan-plan-20110526,0,2130619.story

[Valin]

Tim Pawlenty Tweets of Obama’s ‘European Pub Crawl’

Jim Geraghty

5/26/11

 

Snap, from Tim Pawlenty’s Twitter account:

 

@BarackObama sorry to interrupt the European pub crawl, but what was your Medicare plan?

 

Is visiting European capitals and the G-8 summit really fairly characterized as a “pub crawl”? Eh, maybe not. But the visual of Obama drinking Guinness in the bar got plenty of play, and it fits the GOP theme that Obama is often doing the candidate side work.

 

This is the first sign of the Trump pugnaciousness rubbing off on other candidates.

 

(Snip)

[Geee]

Tim Pawlenty Slams Dick Morris

 

 

 

In a visit to National Review’s offices, Tim Pawlenty displayed his famous “Minnesota nice” — except when it came to Fox News pundit Dick Morris; his Republican predecessor as governor, Arne Carlson; and, of course, President Obama.

 

Pawlenty rejected Morris’s charge that he is soft on sharia and dismissed his journalistic methods; scoffed at Carlson’s criticism of his record; and while avoiding the Newt Gingrich formulation that President Obama is a “secular socialist,” hit the president in every other way.

 

Pawlenty steadfastly refused to take on any of his GOP rivals. “I am not going to be the one who is criticizing in a negative way,” he says. “I am not going to be the first one to throw the elbow. But I am an old hockey player. If the elbows get thrown, we will throw them.”

Pawlenty understands the basic process of journalism well. If he makes the slightest criticism of his fellow contenders, he knows that “the first thing you will write is ‘Pawlenty bashes Romney,’ and we’ll get into a process story.”

 

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/268344/tim-pawlenty-slams-dick-morris-robert-costa

[Valin]

Pawlenty doesn’t feel any warmer toward his predecessor. Asked about the criticisms of Arne Carlson, a former GOP Minnesota governor who has blamed Pawlenty for the state’s current fiscal situation (anticipated deficit: $5.1 billion), Pawlenty immediately argues that Carlson is no Republican.

 

“Arne Carlson left the Republican party some years ago. He openly and notoriously supported both John Kerry and Barack Obama,” Pawlenty points out, adding that Carlson’s criticisms are not “factually accurate.”

 

Arne Carlson never once won the endorsement of the Mn. GOP. He IMO a good working definition of the term RINO. That he left the party, I say Good riddens to bad rubbish

[AceRimmer]

Pawlenty doesn’t feel any warmer toward his predecessor. Asked about the criticisms of Arne Carlson, a former GOP Minnesota governor who has blamed Pawlenty for the state’s current fiscal situation (anticipated deficit: $5.1 billion), Pawlenty immediately argues that Carlson is no Republican.

 

“Arne Carlson left the Republican party some years ago. He openly and notoriously supported both John Kerry and Barack Obama,” Pawlenty points out, adding that Carlson’s criticisms are not “factually accurate.”

 

Arne Carlson never once won the endorsement of the Mn. GOP. He IMO a good working definition of the term RINO. That he left the party, I say Good riddens to bad rubbish

 

I'm starting to like Pawlenty the more I read about him. Even though the RATS and LSM have had the opportunity, they're not saying anything about him, unlike Daniels, Trump, or Huntsman, or whoever the latest RAT Hero of the GOP Week is who "they're scared to death of"...

[Geee]

Pawlenty and the mandate

 

Yesterday, the Examiner's Conn Carroll posted an anti-Tim Pawlenty video that includes the following quote from his

time as governor:

 

"In Minnesota, as to the access issue, I believe we should move towards universal coverage. Everybody should be in a health plan of some sort. How we get there becomes important, I think a mandate by itself is potentially helpful."

 

Politico's Ben Smith excerpted a longer part of a 2006 Pawlenty speech in which he described his position in the mandate. Pawlenty began with a critique of the notion of fixing the health care system with a mandate alone. "If you simply go to the marketplace and mandate coverage, that is an incomplete solution," he said, hastening to add: "And Massachusetts didn't do that and neither would I."

 

Pawlenty laid out two problems with the "mandate by itself." First, he said, people will ignore it, as a substantial minority ignore the car insurance mandate.

 

"Do you know what percent of our population looks at that and says, 'Too bad, so sad, I don't feel like or can't afford it or whatever reason? Seventeen percent. And so here we have a mandate on auto insurance with the threat of a criminal penalty and the non compliance rate for auto insurance is more than double the lack of insured percent in health care," he said. "So a mandate by itself does not much."

 

The second objection echoes a line candidate Barack Obama used to attack Hillary Clinton's push for a mandate during their 2008 campaign, but later abandoned.

 

"If you are poor and don't have the resources or don't have the ability to access insurance because there are barriers to that, a mandate by itself is not much of a solution," Pawlenty said.

So, Pawlenty was clearly open to the idea of a mandate at one point in is career, but to his credit, he never actually imposed a mandate as governor, and as Hotline's Erin McPike reported last year, he twice rejected recommendations that he institute a mandate, including from his own health care task force.

 

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/05/pawlenty-and-mandate

[Geee]

Land of Pawlenty

 

Standing with his back to a mirror that spans the width of a private dining room at Tish’s Restaurant in this western Iowa town, Tim Pawlenty sought the support of the locals who had come to hear him by making a peculiar pitch: I’m less objectionable than my likely Republican primary opponents.

 

“Everybody’s got a few clunkers in their record,” Pawlenty says. “I think mine are fewer and less severe than most.”

 

The argument sounds like a set-up to drive a contrast with the other candidates, but Pawlenty consistently resists that temptation. In an hour-long town hall here on the morning of June 1, Pawlenty shared his thoughts on the debt ceiling, spending, illegal immigration, abortion, health care, jobs, the economy, and several other issues. He holds the views of a mainstream conservative, and he speaks without notes or soaring rhetoric. He is plainspoken and even—not boring exactly, but not exciting, either.

 

Later, during the question-and-answer session after his opening remarks, Pawlenty once again passes on an opportunity to contrast his positions with his likely competitors’. Instead, he seeks to steer the audience away from policy as a means of evaluating the candidates and toward character and, most important, electability.

 

“Let me be real blunt with you,” he says. “Every Republican candidate is going to come through a room like this and talk to a group like this and they’re basically going to say the same thing. Every one of them is going to say, ‘I’m for cutting taxes; I’m for reducing spending; I’m for school choice and school accountability and school reform; I’m for market-based, not government-based health care reform; I’m for being tough on terrorism and standing with friends around the world including Israel; I’m for public-employee pension reform.’ ”

 

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/land-pawlenty_573255.html

[Geee]

Pawlenty to Lay Out Three-Tier Income Tax System in Obama's Hometown

 

CHICAGO -- Republican Tim Pawlenty was set to propose an economic policy Tuesday that would simplify individual tax rates to just three options and cut taxes on business by more than half as he offered himself as a replacement to Barack Obama in the Democratic president's hometown.

 

The former Minnesota governor also was to propose that any services available privately, such as the postal services or mortgages, should not be something government handles. He said he would require a vote in Congress to extend any regulation or he would cancel it. And he said he would eliminate taxes on investments and inheritances.

 

"But our policies can't just be about simply cutting rates. They must also promote freedom and free markets," Pawlenty said in excerpts provided ahead of the morning speech at the University of Chicago.

 

Pawlenty's speech, his first as a declared presidential candidate, also kept an eye on presidential politics and blamed Obama for an anemic economy. He said Americans are ready to innovate and create jobs, but "they have been discouraged and weighed down by President Obama's big government and heavy-handed regulations."

 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/07/pawlenty-to-lay-out-three-tier-income-tax-system-in-obamas-hometown/

[Valin]

Geee

 

“The question for you is who can do it, who has the fortitude to do it, and who will sell in blue places and purple places. Everybody’s going to say, ‘I’m the one who can get the independents in the end. I’m the one who can get the conservative Democrats.’ But,” he said, “I’m the one who actually did it.”

 

It should be noted that, while yes he did there were also 3 candidates in the races he won, the Dems. nominated someone who was pretty hard left, and he was lucky to win, it could very well went the other way.

 

 

As for beating "The One", Tim comes across as Mr. Nice Guy, but as I've mentioned before he is a hockey player, he is not adverse to going into the corner and throwing and elbow or three.

[Geee]

Pawlenty’s Transit Strike

 

 

 

In 2004, Tim Pawlenty faced a choice: accede to the transit union’s compensation demands or risk igniting a strike that would seriously disrupt commuters’ lives.

 

Pawlenty chose the strike.

 

That’s a decision the Minnesota governor has highlighted recently, no doubt hoping to benefit from the same sort of enthusiasm that made Wisconsin governor Scott Walker a Tea Party favorite for his dogged fight to limit public-employee unions’ collective-bargaining powers.

 

“I took on the public-employee unions before it was popular to do it,” Pawlenty said two weeks ago in his speech in Iowa announcing his candidacy. “On the 45th day of the strike, the union came back to the table, and taxpayers won. Today, we have a transit system that gives commuters a ride, without taking the taxpayers for a ride.”

Peter Bell, a Pawlenty appointee, is chairman of the Metropolitan Council, charged with overseeing public transportation in the Minneapolis–St. Paul metro area. Bell recalls that “the heart of the issue was retiree health-care benefits.” Some workers were eligible for lifetime health-care benefits as soon as they had worked as little as ten years and were 55 or older. Bell, with Pawlenty’s approval, wanted to start requiring those already working for the transit system to be employed for 17 years before they were eligible for any retirement health-care benefits. For new employees, he wanted to eliminate retirement health-care benefits entirely.

 

Compensation and current health-care benefits were also matters of dispute between the union and the Council. But behind it all was the unfunded liability of $255 million caused by the retiree health-care benefits. “This unfunded liability was really the Pac-Man in our transit budget,” Bell says. “It was going to eat up all our resources.”

 

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/269165/pawlenty-s-transit-strike-katrina-trinko

[Geee]

Pawlenty Speaks Good Dollars and Sense

 

Tim Pawlenty just might have the right stuff for 2012. At the very least, the man certainly speaks good dollars and sense. Which at this particular moment is the one thing Americans want most desperately to hear.

 

I should mention that the erstwhile Minnesota governor speaks without hyperbole, histrionics, political-shyster sophistry, or sophomoric metaphors, which I, personally, find very refreshing. Governor Pawlenty seems to understand that urgent problems require thoughtful solutions presented in grown-up to grown-up fashion, rather than in some silly politician’s idea of Vaudevillian slapstick. All in all, Pawlenty comes across as a serious man for the serious times in which we unhappily find ourselves living.

 

I doubt we would ever see Tim Pawlenty photographed wearing sissy shorts, sipping a Slurpee in flip-flops and shades. No, if Pawlenty were president, I sense he would work overtime without bearing a petulant grudge against the job for which he applied. I really can’t see this man demanding a vacation every other day.

 

No, Pawlenty is definitely of serious-worker quality.

 

And I’ve yet to see a fawning female groupie faint at his feet. A very positive sign.

 

Pawlenty went to the University of Chicago this week to give a major let’s-fix-this-damned-economy speech. He unveiled the fundamental elements of his plan, which he is calling “A Better Deal.” This is a bit too much FDR-channeling for my taste, but who knows. Perhaps even those mythical “moderates,” who voted for The One, are smart enough to recognize Obama’s “Raw Deal” — at least every time they try to grab an inflated-priced burger and beer and see the bar’s TV catching their little-people’s-savior president yucking it up at Martha’s Vineyard or ping-ponging through Europe on their dime.

 

Choosing this venue, the University of Chicago — a mere hop, skip and jump from Barack and Michelle’s Hyde Park mansion — was pure poking-a-finger-in-Obama’s-eye symbolism. Smart move.

 

The speech, I thought, was quite Reanganesque, despite the FDR-symbolism in its title.

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/pawlenty-speaks-good-dollars-and-sense/

[Valin]

[Valin]

Pawlenty Snaps Up Former Gingrich Co-Chair

June 9, 2011

Katrina Trinko

 

While there’s plenty of buzz over what Newt Gingrich’s team resigning means for Rick Perry, Tim Pawlenty’s team has already added Gingrich’s former national co-chair, former Georgia governor Sonny Perdue.

 

“Tim Pawlenty is a great man, he was a phenomenal governor, and he is the person I now believe stands the greatest chance of defeating President Obama. He is the only candidate who has laid out a real plan to grow the American economy, and his track record in Minnesota is proof he’s the right man for the job,” Perdue said in a statement.

 

(Snip)

 

Once again we see Tim not making any missteps, in his campaign organization, or his run for the WH.

[Rheo]

Pawlenty on Being 'Vanilla': If You Want the Clown-in-Chief, Vote for Somebody Else

 

Tim Pawlenty may be nice, but he's not willing to be anybody's fool. So says the former Minnesota governor and 2012 presidential candidate, who blasted claims by Fox News' Bill O'Reilly that he is too "vanilla" to be president.

 

"Is he playing the race card on me?" Pawlenty jokingly asked on "Fox News Sunday" before getting serious.

 

"I'm not running for comedian- in-chief, or entertainer-in-chief. If people want that, they should go to the ball park or Broadway play or a Las Vegas show. ... Being strong is not the same as being loud. ... So, if you want the clown-in-chief, vote for somebody else. That's not me."

 

In an interview heavy on policy specifics, Pawlenty also proved false charges that he won't take the fight to President Obama in a 2012 presidential race. Targeting a few jabs at the president, Pawlenty also tossed out a couple proverbial body slams at frontrunner GOP candidate Mitt Romney over the former Massachusetts governor's health care policies.

 

"President Obama said that he designed Obamacare after Romneycare and basically made it Obamneycare," Pawlenty said. "The president's own words is that he patterned in large measure Obamacare after what happened in Massachusetts. And what I don't understand is they both continue to defend it."

 

[Rheo]

"Barack Obama doesn't have an economic plan. He just has a campaign plan. You can't find him on what he has to say on Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid. He has run out of ideas and the ideas he does have in growing the economy are bad," Pawlenty said.

 

Pawlenty said his economic plan would achieve 5 percent growth -- something done for continuous years only during the Clinton and Reagan administrations. He said he aims to cut taxes, reduce spending and grow the private economy by reducing the government's share of gross domestic product from 24 percent to 18 percent.

 

Pawlenty said he would also reform entitlement programs by gradually raising the retirement age for the next generation, means testing Social Security, shutting off "the autopilot feature" of Medicaid -- the state-federal program to provide health care for the poor -- and giving it to states as block grants.

 

He said he also wants to "incentivize" quality health care in order to make Medicare more affordable.

 

"Under our Medicare proposal, you'll see features that will have providers, hospitals, doctors, clinics and the like no longer just get paid for volumes of procedures, but will look to the private sector and medical profession to define results and start to pay people, not just for how many procedures they perform, but whether people are getting healthier, whether they're getting better," he said.

[Rheo]

As for taking $2.3 billion in stimulus money while he was governor in order to balance the state's biennial budget, Pawlenty said he would have been a fool not to.

 

If "the federal government is stupid enough to give it to us we're going to be smart to take it," he said. "And by the way, Minnesota is a net subsidizer of the federal government. For every dollar we spend out -- I'll send out there, we only get 73 cents back. So, we're actually paying the bill for the rest of the nation."

 

Pawlenty said even though the country is "sinking," he has a record of being a "serious, thoughtful, seasoned" leader with a "record of getting it done."

 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/12/pawlenty-on-being-vanilla-if-want-clown-in-chief-vote-for-somebody-else/#ixzz1P7fIqrDH

[Rheo]

Pawlenty said even though the country is "sinking," he has a record of being a "serious, thoughtful, seasoned" leader with a "record of getting it done."

 

But while registering near the bottom of most polling, Pawlenty said he's not going to get discouraged.

 

"We like our position. We think we're going to do well. There's going to be a lot of bouncing around in these polls. But as you know, they are not good predictors of who's going to actually win. If they were, we'd have President Hillary Clinton or President Rudy Giuliani," Pawlenty said.

 

"And the idea that you can't be hopeful and optimistic and strong at the same time is just not true."

[Geee]

Pawlenty goes after Romney in New Hampshire

 

DERRY, N.H. -- Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty went on the offensive Sunday against both President Obama and presumed Republican front-runner Mitt Romney, linking their health care plans in a strategy likely to be emulated by fellow GOP candidates during a high-profile debate Monday.

With Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, the early favorite in the Republican field, Pawlenty was in search of a game-changer, particularly in New Hampshire where he desperately needs to distinguish himself from the pack on what amounts to Romney's home turf.

 

To that end, Pawlenty coined a phrase Sunday that could become a staple of the campaign: "Obamneycare."

 

Pawlenty took that message on the road at a cramped bar in Derry and a picnic celebrating Flag Day in rural Greenfield, capping a weekend spent in the Granite State.

 

"The president himself embraces the Massachusetts plan," Pawlenty said, sporting a yellow, open-collared shirt and jeans. "He said the Massachusetts health care plan was the blueprint for Obamacare."

 

Obama's health care overhaul, which would require Americans to buy health insurance, remains widely detested by Republicans, many of whom view Romney's similar use of health insurance mandates as equally unpalatable -- making health care the biggest obstacle Romney faces in winning the nomination.

 

As such, the Romney campaign immediately dismissed the comparison to Obama but tried to avoid a political spitball match with Pawlenty -- a strategy they might be forced to reconsider as Republicans continue to highlight the controversial legislation.

 

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/06/pawlenty-goes-after-romney-new-hampshire