Veepstakes: Pawlenty honest

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Take Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty off the shortlist of possible McCain veep picks. Why? Well:

"Say what you will about Barack Obama," the Minnesota Republican told a conservative group, "people gravitate when you have something positive to say." He added that McCain has been positive as well.

"People want to follow hopeful, optimistic, civil, decent leaders," Pawlenty said in a speech to GOPAC, which helps recruit Republican candidates. "They don't want to follow some negative, scornful person."

Like... er... uh... oh... I don't know... Johnny McBush (i.e., John McCain), who has increasingly been running the sort of nasty, vicious, vindictive smear campaign typical of Republicans?

The last thing McCain and the Republicans want is honesty. And that's just what they got from Pawlenty:

• Obama = hopeful, optimistic, civil, decent.
• McCain = negative, scornful.

"Talk about off-message," remarks MyDD's Todd Beeton. Indeed.

But, then, it's likely that there's no longer much pressure on Pawlenty to be on-message. And it's much easier to be honest when it no longer matters.

Which, it seems, is especially true of Republicans.