Fortunately for Tim Pawlenty, he doesn't have a history of liberal positions he has to disavow, as Mitt Romney did four years ago. Because Pawlenty is demonstrating that in pursuit of the presidency, he'll be as crazy as any subgroup of the Republican electorate wants him to be. The latest evidence comes in a meeting he's arranged with some New Hampshire Tea Partiers, including the freshman state representative who is sponsoring a birther law demanding that presidential candidates show their birth certificates in order to run. Jon Chait explains what's going on:
The birther movement occupies a similar space in the GOP as does, say, handgun control in the Democratic Party today. It's an idea that a large portion of the base supports, but is unpopular with independents, so leaders with any national responsibility or ambitions have to distance themselves from it without alienating its passionate advocates. The difference, of course, is that advocacy of gun control is not a paranoid, factually wrong belief.
The way the presidential candidates have been handling this issue is by being careful not to proclaim their own birtherism but at the same time send the birthers some signal that they're sympathetic to them. They usually make a half-hearted statement of the "I take him at his word that he was born in the United States" variety, then quickly begin to talk about how alien and un-American all of Barack Obama's ideas and policies are.
All the GOP candidates are going to be asked the question multiple times over the next year. And one of them could get himself a lot of positive press coverage by standing up to the birthers. Imagine what a stir it would cause if Romney, Pawlenty, or someone else just said, "President Obama was born in Hawaii. For all the disagreements I have with him, he's an American. Anyone who thinks otherwise at this point needs to get a grip." He would immediately become the brave truth-teller in the race, lauded for his candor, integrity, and refusal to pander.
Unfortunately, the brave truth-teller never wins. Ask Bruce Babbitt. Or Paul Tsongas. Or Bill Bradley. Or Howard Dean. Or the 2000 version of John McCain (the 2008 version realized that brave truth-telling is for losers, and altered his behavior accordingly).
