Sen. Amy Klobuchar's upcoming trip to Iowa has not gone unnoticed in hot, sleepy, July Washington, where Post columnist Chris Cillizza noted today, "no politician ever [italics his] goes to Iowa accidentally." So that apparently helped get Cillizza thinking about presidential politics, 2016 to be specific, for which he put together a Top 10 list of potential aspirants, beginning with Hillary Clinton, the Democratic heir apparent. The Minnesota Democrat is listed eighth on the list, just behind Howard Dean and one notch above Elizabeth Warren. Klobuchar, Cillizza wrote, "may well be the most talented – and effective – politician most people have never heard of." He did not have such kind words for former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, whose 2012 presidential bid got lost in the Iowa cornfields. Pawlenty is not on any list of potential presidential candidates in 2016, not even his own.

But T-Paw's name came up in relation to Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who, the thinking goes, looks better in pictures playing guitar than in real life. Cillizza cited a passage from the New Republic's Alec MacGillis on Maryland's anti-death-penalty, pro-gay marriage Democratic governor: "For all his gym-rat, pub-rock credentials, O'Malley is not a very charismatic politician." To which Cillizza added: "There is a 'Democratic Tim Pawlenty' narrative building around O'Malley at the moment."