Hotdish Wednesday – Pawlenty Still “Not Running”?

With 21 months still to go until the 2008 Republican National Convention, there is still enough talk about Governor Tim Pawlenty and the Presidential ticket to fill a hotdish every day.

We have some of the latest inside.The New York Sun takes a closer look at whether McCain is giving off a “Pawlenty’s picked” kind of vibe:

In the final week of the November election, Mr. McCain made several appearances with Mr. Pawlenty and his words of praise would suggest the Arizona senator sees in the governor a potential future vice president.”I know of no one who will make a greater contribution to the future of America than this great leader,” Mr. McCain said at one stop.”This is the kind of leadership that I’d like to pass the torch to.”

Of course, the columnist also stated “A Democrat won Mr. Kennedy’s old House seat,” so he’s already having some issues with politics.

Captain Ed agrees with the Sun in one respect, with talented GOP Governors in short supply, Pawlenty may win by default.

However, Geraghty is correct about one item, and that’s the lack of ready talent for the VP slot. Unless the nominee takes one of the challengers as a running mate after the convention, the pickings are slim, especially at he gubernatorial level. Pawlenty managed to win re-election, and other than Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mike Huckabee, no other GOP governor has made much noise on a national level — and Arnold’s ineligible for the ticket.

And with Pawlenty jumping so solidly on the McCain bandwagon, Ed wonders if they have an agreement already. “[Pawlenty] passed that opportunity up early, and that makes me think that McCain and Pawlenty have more going on than just a mutual admiration society.”

The Family Security Matters website had the same thought:

Speaking of Republican Governors, Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) seems to be following this close to Sen. McCain. Sure makes a person wonder…if McCain does grab the nomination, will Pawlenty be chosen as his running mate?

Closer to home, Andy Aplikowski shows some concerns over what he has dubbed the “McPlenty Ticket,” the primary one being his fear that the party won’t pay enough attention to Senator Norm Coleman’s early re-election campaing.

Once an endorsement happens, fine, but I will be damned if the state party is going to go pimping for an unendorsed Presidential candidate or Vice President candidate just because they happen to be from our state.

And from the left side of the fence, MN Politics Guru looks at Pawlenty’s run to the center.

Pawlenty is definitely changing his tune. An earlier version of the story online had Pawlenty sounding like a far-left liberal, saying “look at all of the tax credits and subsidies the oil industry gets” when questioned about just how conservative it is to subsidize renewables. Definitely not old-time Pawlenty-speak.

What’s his motivation? I have no idea. If it is higher office, this isn’t the way to go about it: running as a Rockefeller Republican won’t get you any Republican endorsements nationally in this day and age. So what can it be?