Here’s how it went down:

FOX: Are you going to run for governor?

RYBAK: We’ll figure that out tomorrow. …

FOX: …The governor of your state is saying he’s going to run, he going for the White House! [sic]

RYBAK: Well, he’s gonna get his butt kicked by Barack Obama, but that’s another thing…

FOX: Wow!

Rybak appeared with radio host Steve Crowley and Mayor Virg Bernero of Lansing, Mich., on a segment about small business’ role in curing unemployment. Rybak had his positive-outlook patter down cold (at 1:30):

Hey look, this is America. We’re not on our knees. We know what we’re doing. We’ve done great things and we’re going to do them again. We just need to get back to the basics of invention, incubation and manufacturing. We can do this.

Bernero is a fireball that Fox must like from past appearances (video). If Rybak tripped their trigger today with his fightin’ words, maybe he’ll become the kind of opposite-number regular on Fox that Pawlenty is on MSNBC.

[Via MPR's Polinaut]