Tim Pawlenty a Candidate with Little Name Recognition, Courts Wrong Issues

With Tim Pawlenty, pro-life advocates get what they want. None of the personal baggage that Newt Gingrich carries around, Mary Pawlenty is still the former Minnesota governor's wife. He does not have "Romney-care" as a boat anchor around his neck. His state is not laughably referred to as "Taxachusetts." Reputed as a truthful man, it may be his stance on budget issues that will be his undoing within and without the GOP.

"I'm not running for entertainer in chief," Pawlenty quipped when asked if he thought he could energize the Republican base. Quoting the AP, Kare 11 details that Pawlenty's announcement pertaining to seeking the nation's highest office coincides with his primary focus on finances, government spending and the need to cut popular programs. It is at this juncture that it gets difficult to decide whether to vote for or against Tim Pawlenty for president.

Take, for example, ethanol. In 2008 a Washington Post piece speculated on the odds of Pawlenty as VP nominee. Incidentally, this was the year when he took on the governors of oil-producing states in a bid to tighten greenhouse gas emissions. Even though Pawlenty's scheme was largely discredited, his chairing of the National Governors Association led to a lot of press attention and GOP embarrassment.

Even while environmentalists might have applauded the notion of focusing on mandated ethanol use, being "anti-coal or anti-oil" did not look good on a potential vice-presidential resume. Perhaps it is the memory of the nomination that could have been, which has led Pawlenty to proclaim that he wants to phase out subsidies for ethanol -- a position that is not popular with farm states.

With Republican lawmakers still remembering his problematic stance on the energy status quo, farmers and the ethanol lobby now also put Pawlenty on their short list of undesirable candidates. Unfazed by this disadvantage, the candidate for the nomination next went after a Medicare overhaul and a retirement age increase for Social Security. True, these entitlements are huge liabilities on the American balance sheet, but proposing cuts -- of any form -- does not sit well with retirees and those who will rely on either program in the future.

The Associated Press explains how mucking about with these entitlements will likely lead to political ruin. When Republicans championed privatization of Medicare, they were all but run out of town on a rail. When President Barack Obama cut Medicare to pay for parts of his health care proposal, Democrats promptly took a beating in midterm elections. Pawlenty's ideas are not likely to endear him to the voters either.

An Associated Press-GfK poll -- running from May 5-9 and interviewing 1,001 adults -- shows that 54 percent of voters believe that balancing the national budget is possible without having to apply any cuts to Medicare; with respect to Social Security, 59 percent feel the same way. Forty-eight percent want the budget balanced without either program being touched.

The fiscal platform for Tim Pawlenty in 2012 relies on all three issues -- ethanol, Medicare and Social Security cuts -- as major components. Is his run for highest office doomed before he can even take on Mitt Romney on other issues?