[edpc]

I'm guessing the initial MSM analysis of a potential McCain/Pawlenty and Obama/Kaine runoff would go like this:

Kaine is a rising star in the Democratic party in a key Southern state.

Pawlenty is a relative unknown in a state with little sway in the election.

[MinnesotaLibertarian]

I don’t know much about Kaine, but that’s true about Pawlenty. He’s never won a majority of the vote here. He won in 2002 mostly due to a former DFL Congressman running strong third party campaign and in 2006 by hair after his opponent called a reporter a “whore” just days before the election.

McCain will almost definitely loose Minnesota, with or without Pawlenty. We have the longest unbroken streak of voting Democrat for President; the last Repubican who won MN was Nixon in 1972. In fact, the other other Republican to win MN since Hoover was Eisenhower.