Pawlenty: Headed for Better Times?

These are the best of times, these are the worst of times for Republican candidate Tim Pawlenty, to borrow the famous words of Charles Dickens.

The former Minnesota governor booked paltry support of 2 percent in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll of Republican and Republican-leaning independent voters.

But the blazing ascent of fellow presidential candidate and Minnesotan Michele Bachmann may ironically give Pawlenty life yet, Politico reports. She has established herself as the clear favorite in Iowa’s caucuses, the nation’s first presidential contest. So if Pawlenty can upset Bachmann in the Hawkeye state, he can present himself as the “Comeback Kid.”

Much of Pawlenty’s strategy now seems to consist of trying to tear down the Minnesota congresswoman. “Certainly the party, for the good, has become more conservative — but it hasn’t become reckless,” he said when asked whether the GOP would nominate a firebrand like Bachmann.