Posted on 03/06/2015 8:32:45 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Tim Pawlenty is barely an asterisk in presidential political lore, but what happened to his brief and undistinguished 2012 campaign signified a tectonic shift in contemporary campaigning.
By conventional wisdom, Pawlenty did everything right. He invaded my home state of Iowa with a purpose, armed with high name ID as a border state governor who was a finalist to be John McCain’s running mate in 2008. Pawlenty spent so much time here before anyone else was organized that he could’ve qualified for residency. He also bought up a lot of top-tier talent to build an impressive organization.
Yet at the crucial Iowa Straw Poll, all that organization could deliver was a distant and disappointing third-place finish. Just 48 hours later he was out of the race. Pawlenty was guilty of playing a conventional ground game in what had become an air war era. His descent from rising star to irrelevancy is a cautionary tale for candidates in 2016 and beyond.
Voters are changing, due in part to the hectic nature of our lives as well as the convenience of modern technology.
Pawlenty’s goose in Iowa was actually cooked in a New Hampshire primary debate before that fateful straw poll. Pawlenty had gone on the Sunday morning shows the previous day and attacked frontrunner Mitt Romney for being the inspiration for “Obamneycare.” But afterward, when the debate moderator offered Pawlenty the chance to confront Romney directly with his own zinger, he showed all the courage of the cowardly lion.
The next day I hosted a focus group in Iowa of uncommitted caucus conservatives, and when Pawlenty’s name came up he was hammered by man and woman alike for his wimpiness...
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
And the debates will be run by the opposition, who use the opportunity to select their opponents. Again.
No, as usual the MSM will determine our candidate. Whoever they push as the one that can’t be beat by the left will be their choice (the one they know they can defeat).
Karl Rove, Fox News and the GOPe have already determined Jeb Bush to be the 2016 nominee.
The debates will just be for show.
I’m more inclined to think that the debates will fairly quickly thin the herd so the GOP-e knows where to put it’s money and resources. They will not stand for another primary where an Adelson keeps propping up a guy like Gingrich who can’t win and is just siphoning money from their chosen candidate.
I thought Pawlenty was the one who withdrew because his wife did not want him to run.
Question: Which potential candidate was the North American debate champion in both categories and has a debate competition named after him? Do you think they’re going to let him run free in that sort of venue?
They always make up a “wanted more time with his family” story.
And the debates will be run by the opposition, who use the opportunity to select their opponents. Again.
I was going to say exactly this.
Since I have been following politics closely, about 20 years, LIBERAL MEDIA CONTROL THE DEBATES.
It is a huge anger I have about conservative media, even this site. Rush, Levin, Hannity, Free Republic. I honestly fear that if all these conservative entities were to remain LOUD AND FIRM that Republicans should insist on some Conservative (chosen by conservatives) moderators and formats, it would happen. It is nothing but fair to have half the debates or half the moderators be from the clear right. Yet no one dares stand up to the status quo.
I know this shapes our presidential elections, and I always hope that we will fight and push over the following four years so that it never happens again. But in we march to the NBC or CNN debates, with liberal weenies as 100% of the moderation team. Every four years. We run to Lucy and kick, but dang if the football isn’t there again. SERIOUSLY????
WHY DO WE ALLOW THIS? you might hear a whine or two, but no one seems to actually make a deal with everyone that we should start the talking points going NOW and instead of asking potential candidates about the abortion litmus test, get them on a fair debate platform. If all candidates pushed for it, and if Rush and all the other conservative media demanded it as our right (whoops pun lol), IT WOULD HAPPEN.
Well???
I dread the debates. The format is a mud fight with the sober faced “moderators” throwing the mud, setting up every soul in the contest for an embarrassing fall, while trying to keep them all as miserable and uncomfortable as possible.
The real contest is between the moderators as to whom among them can display the most bite and arrogance toward the candidates
Rince Prepause has made different arrangements for this primary cycle having sought out, among the political shark operatives parading as journalist-moderators, a few more Republican GOP types to eviscerate our own.
I dread the debates. :)
????
Pawlenty’s problems were a lot worse than Deace indicates. It was the Al Franken vote fraud debacle under Pawlenty’s nose that branded him a wimp. And TPaw has no personality.
As is everything in today’s society. Bresad and circuses in ancient Rome; EBT cards and crisis after crisis today.
SSDD.
“WHY DO WE ALLOW THIS?”
“WE” don’t have enough power. The GOPe allows it because, I am becoming more certain of this, they are working with the progressives toward a common goal. Romney had Obama by the ears in one debate, and yet in another he allowed collusion between Obama and the debate moderator.
McConnel was going to send a “full funding” DHS bill to the WH and follow it up with another restricting the amnesty funding- clearly a move to allow full funding with a CMA bill to tell the republicans “I tried as hard as I could” while explicitly allowing what he said he’d stop.
We need someone with a couple of million to put up so we can have the kind of debate we want (with no trained-seal focus groups in the front rows), and when the progs don’t show up we zoom in on their empty lectern with their name on it and ridicule them as cowards (enough so we get MSM coverage). Rush won’t want to be moderator, if he’s too overtly political he’s not an entertainer. We don’t want Hannity or O’Reilley, but what about Palin or even Romney as moderator? I’m sure there are others who could do a fair job.
How about debating society rules and skip the celebs?
Yes! Anything that leads to real information flow and not a string of gotchas to be pumped on huffpo.
Levin, and yeah, I’d probably accept Hannity. He is on our side and it would be a repub debate. I wouldn’t want him on the nominee debates. Larry Elder would be great, and I’m not sure anyone would be better than Dennis Prager. There are a bunch of good conservatives.
But you are right. Every time a true conservative has media attention he needs to have the balls to call out the media. Every time. For instance, what if Romney had had the presence of mind to call “Foul! What is this, debate collusion here?” When Candy diabetes Crowley stepped in to help Obama at that debate. What if people just had the balls to call them on it?
I remember that Debate. I knew he was milquetoast all along.
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