Pawlenty Implies Criticism of Bachmann in Iowa

The gloves are coming off in the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty criticized fellow Minnesotan and presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann Tuesday — although he didn’t mention her by name, Politico reports. As the clear No. 2 favorite after Mitt Romney, she now has a target on her back.

As for Pawlenty, speaking to reporters after a speech to Iowa Republicans Tuesday, he said that, since the 2008 election, Americans have “learned the lesson of big speeches and no experience with Barack Obama and it didn’t work,” he said.

Without using Bachmann’s name, he repeated the implication of his recent assessment of her record as “non-existent.”

He also set himself apart from other hopefuls, saying twice that he isn’t one of those candidates who merely “flapped their jaws.”

“I don’t think the country wants to make the mistake again of putting somebody in the Oval Office who hasn’t had executive leadership experience running a large enterprise under difficult and challenging circumstances with a public component to it and driving it to results. I think that’s a necessary prerequisite to being president of the United States and she doesn’t have it.”