Pawlenty to Newsweek: Dems ‘interesting, bold, dramatic’

Gov. Pawlenty tells Newsweek that “Democrats have all kinds of characters who are interesting, bold and dramatic,” while Republicans have Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin … and him.

The interview, a Q&A with Newsweek’s Howard Fineman, finds the governor in a frank mood. Pawlenty waxes realistic about the political landscape:

We’ve gotten our butts kicked in 2006 and 2008. And I think for good reason. You can’t say you are going to be fiscally disciplined and then go to Washington and spend like crazy. You can’t say, “We are against corruption and bad behavior,” and then engage in corruption and bad behavior! I mean, people aren’t stupid.

Creationism comes up:

NEWSWEEK: In her book, Palin claims that McCain’s handlers wanted her to be silent about her belief in creationism. How would you describe your view?

PAWLENTY: I can tell you how we handle it in Minnesota. We leave it to the local school districts. We don’t mandate a curriculum or an approach. We allow for something called “intelligent design” to be discussed as a comparative theory. It doesn’t have to be in science class.

NEWSWEEK: Where are you personally?

PAWLENTY: Well, you know I’m an evangelical Christian. I believe that God created everything and that he is who he says he was. The Bible says that he created man and woman; it doesn’t say that he created an amoeba and then they evolved into man and woman. But there are a lot of theologians who say that the ideas of evolution and creationism aren’t necessarily inconsistent; that he could have “created” human beings over time.

[Via Polinaut]