Can someone explain to mewhy Tim Pawlenty is considered Presidential material?

[The Duke]

Tim Pawlenty is on every Vice Presidential short list.  He has been talked about as a candidate for 2012.  Does anyone know why?  My dad asked me about potential VPs for Republican candidates, and I said a lot of people are talking about Pawlenty, but I didn't know many details about him.  So I looked him up.

And I have just one question: What the hell does anyone see in this guy?

Yes, I get it.  He passes conservative litmus tests, he's Governor of a swing state, he's an ethanol nut from a state that neighbors Iowa.  I know all the reasons he makes sense in consultant-land.  What I want to know is what the hell do normal peple see in him?  He couldn't get elected to my hometown city council for goodness sake!  He has no charisma, no presenece, an annoying little smirk, and his views on issues are nothing more than conservative boilerplate with some midwest farm state pork thrown in.  Further, his youthful appearance is more John Kasich than John F. Kennedy.

Seriously, I feel like somebody owes me an explaination on this one.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

I'm pretty sure the position as an elected republican in a Dem leaning state bordering IA and WI, is the reason.

[The Duke]

I'm pretty sure the position as an elected republican in a Dem leaning state bordering IA and WI, is the reason.

That was all I could think of, and its a pretty stupid reason.  These people have seen him speak right?  Because he sounds like a high school guidance counselor.

[Gabu]

The thought process basically goes like this: he's from Minnesota and Minnesota borders on Wisconsin and Iowa.  Thus, putting Pawlenty on the ticket will lock up the Midwest for the GOP, because obviously people will always, without fail, vote for anyone who was a governor of either their state or a neighboring state, no matter what.

I didn't say the thought process made sense.

[Stranger in a strange land]

People in consultant-land (as you so brilliantly put it) think Pawlenty is a great candidate because he's a conservative who got elected twice in a liberal state, one that Republicans have been trying and failing to win for years.

They assume that if Pawlenty is on the ticket, IA and WI,  and maybe even MI, will be given the little push they need to flip Republican. This despite the fact that Pawlenty's margins have hardly been commanding, voters are far more partisan at the federal level than they are at the state level, and that the Midwest doesn't have a strong regionalist mentality.  Lastly, some people still cling to the belief that a vice-presidential nominee is enough by himself to swing his state or region to the ticket (see: John Edwards, 2004, Lloyd Bentsen, 1988, Jack Kemp, 1996)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

John Ford is one of the few Republicans who gets it. As do some other people in this thread who realize how idiotic the logic that VPs give a huge boost in their home state and any boost in a neighboring state is.