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IowaPolitics.com: Pawlenty criticizes health care reform, bailouts, but silent on run for president
11/8/2009

By Lynn Campbell
IowaPolitics.com

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty delivered a scathing review of Democrats and the Obama administration Saturday night to about 700 at the Republican Party of Iowa's fall fundraising dinner, but he remained silent about his own potential run for president in 2012.

"They have a party now on the other side, our competitors, that have embraced big government, big unions and big bailouts and they want to have the people believe that they're for the common person, for the working person," Pawlenty said. "We have a tremendous opportunity as the country sees now that what Barack Obama promised is not being delivered, and they see the dangerous leftward tilt that he's trying to take the country. There's an opportunity for conservatives to rally and show the country a better way."

Pawlenty, who's vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association, spoke at Iowa Republicans' big event of the year on the same night that health care reform was approved on the U.S. House floor. Iowa's event was carried on C-SPAN and dozens of national and international media attended, largely due to speculation that Pawlenty will run for president.

"In his victory speech in Iowa after the caucuses, President Obama promised, and he used the word 'promise,' he was going to bring Republicans and Democrats together to pass needed health care reform in a way that, we were led to believe it was going to be pragmatic and common sense," Pawlenty said. "Now I ask you, are you sick and tired of having the Democrats trying to ram down this liberal monstrosity down our throats which is their health care reform plan?"

Pawlenty said the focus needs to be on the economy, but instead the nation under Democrat-controlled Congress is faced with a "miserable" health care bill and "terrible" cap-and-trade bill. "They should be focused like a laser on jobs, not acting like a manure spreader in a windstorm," he said.

Obama might fire people up, but he wants to take the United States in places the country doesn't want to go and are very harmful, Pawlenty asserted. The Minnesota governor criticized bailouts and the growing deficit, saying the federal government needs to live within its means.

"The only thing growing faster than the natural debt is Chris Matthews' man-crush on Barack Obama," Pawlenty said, referring to the news anchor and mostly left-leaning political commentator who hosts “Hardball with Chris Matthews" on MSNBC.

Pawlenty said he was elected as governor in one of the more liberal states in the country, home to U.S. Sen. Al Franken. "If we can contain spending and taxes in Minnesota, as Frank Sinatra said about New York, 'If we can do it there, we can do it anywhere.'"

The Minnesota governor also sprinkled his speech with some humor, quoting from the movie "Talladega Nights" with Will Farrell when he called his wife, Mary Pawlenty, a "red-hot smoking wife." A reporter later asked him what his wife thought about that comment.

"I think she appreciates that line. I talked to her about it and she's OK with it," Pawlenty said, adding that the comment was meant in humor. "She knows it's in fun. I mean it sincerely, I think she is hot."

Brenda Lyddon of Deep River, Iowa, who has family in Minnesota, is one of the few who had a chance to speak to Pawlenty after the Republican dinner. "We're all waiting to see if he runs for president," she said. "I was hoping he would announce that tonight. We thought if he did, Iowa is always the place that you announce it and he didn't so we're still wondering."

Lyddon said she's definitely looking toward and thinking about the 2012 presidential race. She said Pawlenty's speech was great and she agrees with his conservative values. "It's not so much Republican, it's conservative," she said. "I think he needs to get his name out there more, which he's doing because it's early. I think he'll do good."

Pawlenty said he enjoys coming to Iowa, which he said has similarities and shared heartland values as Minnesota. He didn't appear pleased when asked by reporters after the event whether he saw this trip to Iowa as an audition for 2012. "We've been through that before," he said.

He went on to say: "My focus is on the 2010 elections, I've been trying to help in Minnesota and across the country, get more Republicans elected through the Republican Governors Association, which I'm vice chair. But also, as time allows, I'm going to try to help other candidates who support Republican conservative principles."


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