Tim Pawlenty Will Likely Run In 2012
Monday, March 14th, 2011Pawlenty has set a deadline of 45 days regarding his announcement as a republican candidate for the president of the United States. More and more it is looking like both Palin and Huckabee won’t be running and even Eric Woolson, Huckabee’s former campaign manager in 2008, signed on board with the Pawlenty team. John Thune already made an announcement last month that he does not intend to run. Pawlenty, Palin, Huckabee and Thune all have had high ratings with Tea Party members and with those candidates out of the way Pawlenty’s chances at securing the nomination are much higher.
Pawlenty stated during his speech earlier this week at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition that if he can win two terms as governor in a liberal state like Minnesota, then he can be a viable candidate for the presidency of the United States. He quoted Frank Sinatra’s “New York New York” by saying if he can make it in Minnesota then he can make it anywhere. He is a social conservative candidate that reflects the values of Christian conservatives and he also addresses the fiscal needs that American’s are looking for. Pawlenty is married to Mary Pawlenty and they have two daughters, Anna and Mara. Although raised a Roman Catholic, he became an evangelical to match his wife’s faith and regularly attends a Baptists church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
In a statement Pawlenty showed his disdain for the Roe v. Wade decision and said it was the wrong choice. He believes abortion is morally wrong and implemented a twenty-four hour ban on abortions while governor of Minnesota. He disagrees with the recent decision of repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in the military and said as president he would reinstate the law. Furthermore he has stated that homosexuals shouldn’t have the right to marry or gain marital status under civil unions.
The former Minnesota governor also made major strides to reform the budget crisis in his state by cutting spending and programs to ultimately wipe out the state’s deficit. In his first term he didn’t raise taxes a single cent, but managed to fix a 4.7 billion dollar state deficit. In his second term he cut government waste even further and reduced unnecessary programs to erase nearly 3 billion dollars of debt. His fight wasn’t easy making these cuts as he had to face the popular DFL party, a faction of the Democratic Party. He squared off with them on budget concerns causing a shutdown of the state government in 2005.
The latest Tea Party poll shows that Tim Pawlenty has a slight lead over Sarah Palin, a Tea Party favorite. This could indicate a reason why both Pawlenty and Palin have waiting to make any official announcements about a candidacy. Similar platform candidates may ultimately end up splitting votes causing an unfavorable candidate to win the republican candidacy. Pawlenty in a recent statement said republicans ought to follow Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment in which he declared that republicans shouldn’t speak ill of each other.
Derek Thomas is the editor in chief of republican2012.org and is writing the news on the latest 2012 republican candidates. You can show your support for the Tim Pawlenty 2012 campaign by buying Pawlenty 2012 Bumper Stickers and Pawlenty 2012 t shirts.