VP or not VP: T-Paw was the ‘safe choice if Palin faltered’

The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election, veteran Washington Post reporters Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson’s chronicle of last year’s epic campaign, hits bookstores tomorrow. But the newspaper has been teasing it with excerpts.

Today’s piece focuses on John McCain’s search for a vice presidential candidate to shake up the campaign. It offers further proof of how close Gov. Tim Pawlenty came to making the cut. According to Balz and Haynes, at the end it was down to Sarah Palin or Pawlenty. If the Alaska governor had failed to impress McCain, T-Paw would have gotten the call.

Here’s their description of Pawlenty:

Pawlenty was young and vigorous, a conservative who had grown up in a blue-collar family — his father was a truck driver — and he was anti-abortion. He had won reelection in the Democratic year of 2006 and was seen as a future leader of the GOP, an advocate of modernizing the party without abandoning its conservative principles. Though not particularly flashy, he was seen as a more than credible choice, a running mate who might keep the Upper Midwest competitive. He was the safe choice if Palin faltered.