Pawlenty to Drop Out of Race

via Hotair:

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty announced today that he is suspending his presidential campaign after a disappointing result in the Iowa straw poll.

Really? I can't imagine why he would have had such a poor performance. It couldn't possibly be because he put everyone in the room to sleep with his "Minnesota Nice" schtick. It also couldn't be because he believes that global warming, er, climate change is real.

Is this the end of his political career? As much as I would hope that the answer to that question would be yes, I wouldn't count him out quite yet.

Rumor has it that he is being recruited to challenge incumbent DFL (Democratic Farm-Laborer, or as I call them, Democrats of the Far Left) Senator Amy Klobuchar for her seat in 2012.

I like this move, and think that it is a very smart strategy. Pawlenty has good name recognition in Minnesota, seems to be fairly popular, and is overall a credible candidate. In addition, I think that he would be a good addition to the Republican caucus in the Senate. He's conservative enough that he would vote with his party the vast majority of the time (I'll ballpark it at 75%, though I reserve the right to revise that figure once he has an actual record), especially on major bills and policy shifts.

In addition, he's perceived as being more moderate, which is good for two reasons. The first is that he can use this perception, which, in my opinion, has a strong basis in fact, to gain the support of more moderate members and voters in supporting conservative policies.

The second reason that this would make him a good member of the Senate plays off of the first: those times when he does cross over will help him build the relationships needed to forge the bipartisan coalition necessary to pass Conservative policies. In fact, this was one of his strengths as governor. He was able to work with the legislature, which at the time was controlled by the DFL, to pass fairly fiscally conservative budgets.

In all, I think that it is smart for him to run for Senate. He is likely to win, which would force the DNC to play defense in territory it didn't think it had to, thus reducing the amount of money they have to spend a race elsewhere. In addition, he will be a valuable member of the caucus, who might be able to keep the moderates and conservatives from attacking each other, as well as forging the coalitions necessary to pass legislation.