Join
Get Local
Winning the Future
Gov Pawlenty- It's Time to Endorse Newt
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has been parading around with John McCain for the past few months, attempting to bring him back up in the polls. By now Pawlenty should recognize it's time to drop "the maverick's" dead campaign and start one for a man of real solutions, Newt Gingrich.
Several months ago, many McCain backers proclaimed Pawlenty as the Senator's "bridge to the conservative base". Anyone who knows Pawlenty as a governor knows that he can barely satisfy the base here in Minnesota, let alone try to bone up the credentials of a man whose work has alienated the religious right and the Republican party.
Pawlenty would best serve as a "bridge to the moderates", and Newt's a potential candidate that would be most in need of the Governor's kind words.
And it's not like Pawlenty would be abandoning any principles if he were to publicly encourage Newt to run, after all, Pawlenty's plans for education, healthcare, and the environment align directly with that of the former Speaker.
Newt has traveled around the country speaking about the absolute failure of inner-city schools, especially that of Detroit and Washington DC. Here in Minnesota, the Governor has implemented conservative principles in to our schools and found much success. Newt could compliment Pawlenty's work in keeping Minnesota near the top of the country in education, and Pawlenty could credit Newt for being the lone Republican to address the problems of inner city schools.
The governor has recently proposed a healthcare plan that seems to have taken a few pages from Newt's Center for Health Transformation, yet another issue they could publicly bond together over.
Pawlenty has made it clear where he stands on the war, and there is no Republican candidate who has been as blunt as Gingrich has about how Bush has failed this war. Back in 2003, McCain talked about the ease of victory, whereas Gingrich had the foresight to proclaim we had "gone off a bridge" in Iraq. With all due respect to McCain's heroic service, which man can claim honesty about this war?
So my Minnesota Republican counterparts, or perhaps Iowans who are sick of seeing your neighbor to the North being a lemming to McCain, join me in calling for Pawlenty's public endorsement of Newt for 08.