Tim-ber!, by Arthur Tebbel – Pop Art #141

August 16, 2011 Arthur Tebbel 1 Comment

Dear Art,

This weekend I withdrew from the race for to be the Republican nominee for President.  I did this after I finished a distant third in the Ames straw poll.  Conventional wisdom predicted that I would be a strong contender in Iowa because of my two terms of service as Governor of neighboring Minnesota.  With it being clear that momentum would not develop in Iowa it seemed like a lost cause and that I should move on.  Was this a good call?  Is there anything I should have done differently during the campaign that could have avoided this outcome?

-Tim Pawlenty

Tim,

I think if I were running your campaign I would try to make you look like less of a spineless coward.  I’m thinking back to defining moments in your campaign and the one that leaps to the front of my mind is when you were willing to talk a lot of smack about Mitt Romney, the once and future frontrunner in this race with apologies to Mr. Perry, on television on Sunday and then refused to say anything at all to his face at a debate the following week.  That isn’t going to fly.  If you were going to run in the moderate zone and not go to the insane right (more on this later) you couldn’t also be unwilling to go after the guy above you.  If people want to vote for a moderate unwilling to take the fight to his political opponents they could just vote for President Obama.

There was also a certain irony in watching Michelle Bachmann take you out.  Another Minnesota politician and one that I would imagine you could have snuffed out long ago.  It’s like a tiny little tea party morality play.  You let her get more and more powerful as it served your common agenda then were stunned when they didn’t want to sit at the kids’ table anymore.  I would extend my sympathies to you but instead of the rigors of a long campaign and then potentially a fantastically stressful job you’ll get to be a highly paid lobbyist or television personality.  You did all right T-Paw.

You also didn’t really need to drop out.  Sure you finished third and there was something like a 1,500 vote difference between you and the top tier but so what?  Ron Paul may have gotten 4,000 votes but is more of a study in intense fanaticism than an actual candidate for president.  So you were number two in the serious contenders division and in that division you are behind the person most likely to have a dramatic meltdown between now and the caucuses.  I don’t think your heart was ever really in this Tim.