If this New York Times profile is any indication, the Tim Pawlenty of 2011 is intensely focused on positioning himself as a Tea Partier, religious conservative, military hawk, and all-around generic Republican:
“I want to be every person's candidate — that's my goal,” Mr. Pawlenty said. “The notion that you can't do more than one thing at a time, I think, is a flawed premise.”
At a recent Tea Party Patriots rally, he pronounced, “The government's too damn big!” To an evangelical audience, he declared, “The Constitution was designed to protect people of faith from government, not to protect government from people of faith.” And to Republicans in New Hampshire, he closed with a gentle plea: “Please leave with hope and optimism.”
As Matthew Yglesias notes, this is in marked contrast to the Governor Tim Pawlenty of 2005, a moderate Republican, who attracted attention and support from reform-minded conservatives for his focus on the economic concerns of working-class Americans. Of course, this change has less to do with anything intrinsic to Pawlenty, and more to do with his circumstances: he's aiming for the GOP presidential nomination, and to win, he needs to satisfy the preferences of Republican primary voters.
This goes to a frequent point of mine: If you want meaningful reform within the Republican Party -- meaning, for instance, a GOP that accepts the reality of climate change or accepts the occasional necessity to raise taxes -- then your first target should be the rank-and-file. While politicians can influence the direction of a party, in most cases, they are responding to voters and party elites. In other words, reformers should focus a little less on the right candidate, and a little more on spreading their ideas among the Republican grassroots.
