In a speech that could prove pivotal to his political future, Gov. Tim Pawlenty painted an image for national Republicans gathered in San Diego of a new Republican message that would reach out to conservative Democrats and independents -- and invoked his blue collar bona fides as the possible guy to lead the charge.
To rouse the crowd, Pawlenty took some serious shots at the party's nemesis: President Barack Obama.
"In the eyes of many, President Obama is cool, cool, cool. But the American people are figuring out that he is wrong, wrong, wrong," Pawlenty said.
The keynote speech to the Republican National Committee was designed to energize a party hammered in recent elections and to introduce Pawlenty's middle America, outside-the-Beltway persona to those who could help generate buzz about his prospects and open up campaign checkbooks.
To that end, Pawlenty also made the rounds of national media, offering interviews to CNN, FOX and the congressional insiders' newspaper, The Hill.
In his speech, Pawlenty painted Obama as a big spender who is sending the nation hurtling toward larger deficits and ever-broader Washington control over people's lives. Obama's policies, Pawlenty said, would make good attack fodder in the 2010 elections and beyond.
Pawlenty, who announced earlier this year that he would not seek a third term in Minnesota, said Republicans "need to get over their political post traumatic stress syndrome" from the blistering losses.
Republicans, he said, need to offer "hopeful, meaningful solutions. And we need to state it boldly."
Drawing on his South St. Paul boyhood and his working-class brothers and sisters as a springboard, Pawlenty spoke of reaching out to conservative Democrats and independents.
"People don't want to spend more on government, but they want good value for the money they do spend," Pawlenty said. "That's a good sentiment for us as Republicans."
Pawlenty received mild applause from the crowd and a polite standing ovation afterward. The speech was webcast live on CNN.com.
Afterward, Minnesota DFL party leaders pointed out that 112,000 Minnesotans have lost their jobs in Minnesota since June 2008, the state is facing a projected $6 billion deficit and 35,000 people have been knocked off state health care programs.
"Governor Pawlenty has done little in his administration other than side with big business, look out for big insurance, and leave Minnesotans in the dust as he makes his way toward Washington," DFL Chairman Brian Melendez said in a statement.
The Democratic National Committee also took aim at Pawlenty, casting him as "the far right wing ideologue Rush Limbaugh and the party elders hoped he would be."
Pawlenty declined interviews with Minnesota media, citing a tight schedule, but told The Hill he would spend the next several years pointing out the faults in the Obama administration and congressional Democrats.
He once again downplayed aspirations for the White House although he earlier had acknowledged to the Associated Press that he is considering forming a political action committee, widely considered the first serious step on the path to a presidential candidacy.
"I just genuinely have not decided what I want to do down the road," he told The Hill.
Mark Brunswick • 651-222-1636
