Pawlenty’s choice of theme music, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son,” deftly evoked his much-touted working-class roots with the line, “I ain’t no senator’s son.”

But considering he wants to convince people that he is the one they should pick as the GOP nominee, he could have done without the song’s repeated refrain of “It ain’t me, it ain’t me.”

Pawlenty advertised his youthfulness — relative to many other GOP presidential aspirants — by revealing his birth year (1960), saying he’ll be 49 soon.

But he dulled his youthful glow with a self-deprecating anecdote set at his “regular house” in Eagan: Pawlenty and his “red hot smoking wife” Mary are both standing in the bathroom, the governor lamenting his receding hairline and other signs of middle age — including “love handles flappin’ over the side of my belt.” Mary Pawlenty’s comment on his critical self-assessment, according to T-Paw: “There’s nothing wrong with your eyesight.”

Pawlenty’s speech offered a couple inadvertent glimpses into his status as a lame-duck state leader and not-yet presidential candidate. At one point he talked about the need to focus on “growing jobs in our state,” quickly amending that to “growing jobs in our country.” But he also admitted to having been on the road a lot, eating unhealthy junk food.

In Gov. Pawlenty’s most direct attempt to get a rise from the Iowans, he put a twist on President Obama’s call-and-response line, “Are you fired up and are you ready to go?”

First Pawlenty said Obama is trying to “take the United States to places it doesn’t want to go.” Then he offered his own version: “Are you fired up and are you ready to fight back?”

He interspersed that line with complaints like ”Are you tired of Democrats trying to ram this liberal monstrosity down our throats?” and gripes about bail-outs for Wall Street, big auto companies, and big insurance companies. But the Iowa ballroom’s response couldn’t match the roar Obama gets from crowds at packed stadiums like Target Center.

Still, Pawlenty said the frustrations Americans are feeling give Republicans “huge running room” and a “tremendous opportunity.”

He opened his keynote address to a GOP “Leadership for Iowa” event with the requisite shout-outs to state leaders. ”I don’t think [the health care reform bill] would have been delayed without you,” Pawlenty said to Iowa’s Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Pawlenty held out hope that the health care bill that he called “terrible” and “miserable” might yet meet defeat.

Within three hours, the bill had passed the U.S. House of Representatives.

Minnesota Public Radio’s Polinaut has audio. C-SPAN has video.