I’m talking media exposure. Media exposure and straw polls are two different beasts. Pawlenty seems to get a lot of media attention. Afterall, it was the media who chose McCain as the GOP candidate in 2008. He was not my first choice.
IMNSHO, the GOP decided on McCain/Pawlenty years ago; they told Norm Coleman to not run for governor, to let Pawlenty become governor, and that Norm Coleman could run for Senator, and that GWB would actively help Coleman. It was because the GOP believed that PAWLENTY was a shoe-in for VP, and then prez for 8 years.
The GOP is so ignorant that they didn't see what the millions from mittbots and the billions from mittwhits could do to mess up the presidential primaries.
YMMV, that's my interpretation, however, of HOW & WHY the U.S.A. now has among its august senators, one Senator Alan Stuart Franken.
Shiver...