Video and more after the jump.

“Stylistically, she’s got many, many strengths,” Pawlenty gushes. “Substantively, she’s got an executive leadership. There’s a confidence there that’s decisive, that I think is crisp.”

Echoing a logic of identity politics that Republicans have also advanced this week in Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District, Pawlenty pushes Palin’s personal interests and family experiences:

She’s somebody who can speak to people who are outdoors, people who’ve got disabled children, people who have members of the military, and more. She has a series of life experiences that when she speaks to people, people say, “You know, that’s kind of like me. That’s kind of my story.”

“But she’s not being asked to be local councilor,” protests SkyNews interviewer Jeremy Thompson. “She’s being asked to be vice president of the United States!”

At which point Pawlenty again cites Palin’s two years as governor, before conceding at one limitation in Palin’s portfolio.

“Does she have the deepest foreign policy experience? No-o-o-o,” volunteers the longtime McCain backer, who SkyNews bills as having been “heavily tipped” for the vice presidential slot himself — and who just wrapped up a five-day trade mission to Spain and England where he twice keynoted international gathering between meetings with ambassadors and top European foreign policy figures.

In the video, Pawlenty also discusses his feelings about getting passed over, and exactly when he heard the bad news: “Officially, as I was eating breakfast.”