It’s not that Pawlenty is a bad guy, or has too much baggage or anythinZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
The overriding theme of the Romney campaign is “competent” as in “Romney is competent to fix the economy, and Obama isn’t.”
It’s likely Romney will pick a governor who has done a good job at the state level to reinforce the “competent” theme. This sets up a contrast between the GOP ticket and the Obama/Biden ticket which can be portrayed as incompetent.
Pawlenty fits that meme. He may be boring, but nobody doubts he has done a good job as governor.