He remained John McCain's staunch supporter throughout his campaign's darkest days when most observers believed the Arizona senator's presidential hope were doomed, and now his name is being mentioned as McCain's possible running mate.
So reports The Politico's Jonathan Martin, who writes that a result of his loyalty, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty's chances of joining McCain's ticket in the number two spot is a hot topic among party insiders.
Martin cites former Minnesota GOP Rep. Vin Weber, one of Pawlenty's biggest boosters as ticking off the governor's strong points as a Veep contender “First of all, his age (47) is attractive; second, he’s from outside Washington. Third, he represents a battleground part of the country. And he has a nice balance of -- on one hand being totally acceptable to the conservative wing of the party, especially to social conservatives -- but at the same time sharing a couple of key maverick strains of thought with McCain.”
Martin adds that Sara Taylor, former White House political director and a veteran of both Bush-Cheney campaigns, contacted him to offer her own observations on the governor.
Taylor, he wrote, lavished praise on Pawlenty. "By far, he's the strongest candidate" to serve as McCain's running mate, she said. "He's a conservative, rock-n-roll Republican and is counterintuitive to the party stereotype that we're old and rich,” says Taylor, who recalled visiting St. Paul and finding the governor jamming in his office to recording artist Bruce Springsteen. “He's young and blue-collar."
In a potential race against the 46-year-old Barack Obama, Pawlenty would be "as good as our party
Has for that [matchup]," she said.
Pawlenty was an early and active McCain supporter, Martin recalled, helping to lobby fellow governors as early as December 2006., and stayed loyal through the hard times.
“He stuck with us through thin,” senior McCain adviser Charlie Black told Martin. “He went anywhere we asked and did
anything we asked him to do. He is a rising star in the party,” adds Black.
Black however warned McCain “has not spent one second thinking about a running mate.”
Martin reports that if McCain picks Pawlenty it would not thrill his state's conservatives. He writes that Pawlenty"is not a darling of his state’s conservative base. In 2002, he lost in an initial precinct caucus straw poll vote to a more conservative candidate before later getting his party’s nod in a state convention. And he was unable to deliver McCain a victory in similar non-binding caucuses on Super Tuesday."
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