The sudden campaign exit by Tim Pawlenty surprised those who saw him as a likely “last man standing” Republican presidential nominee. The self described rational and credible candidate, the rather bland Pawlenty seemed a logical choice, when more dynamic foes such as Bachmann, Ron Paul, and now Governor Perry had punched themselves out.
From Buchanan through Coolidge and Harding, we have had a number of presidents of average ability at best. It was certainly possible that Minnesota’s average governor, astride his no new taxes carriage, could ride into the presidency. To raise his visibility among the crowded Republican field, the governor needed a new image. He chose that of fighter, using images from his playing days in the fighting sport of hockey. An important vehicle was his new biography, “Courage to Stand.” The book’s jacket photograph displays the slender Pawlenty with a chest like Jesse Ventura’s. And the book’s theme features Pawlenty as the powerful fighter, standing against tax- and government-loving liberals.
In the book, he waxes on about his love for hockey, from playing in elementary school to his age-50 teams. In hockey, he learned it’s OK to “drop our gloves first, get set, and then fight.” Just don’t hit the guy after he is down, unless he deserves more than the usual beating. Then you “pick him up and start whaling on him again.”
Pawlenty’s term as governor is described as a time of heroically balancing budgets while “whaling on” liberal spenders. That this resulted in new local and state fees is noticed by his opponents. To fix the rest of Minnesota’s budget problems, costs were met by local property taxes or were pushed into the next biennium. That Pawlenty departed his post with a several billion dollar deficit for the next governor was also noted by his new Republican opponents.
Both the book and the campaign adopted the Reagan theme that “government is the problem.” That failed Pawlenty because too many other Republican candidates were after the same voting bloc. I suggest that it will also fail any nominee because government isn’t the problem.
There is a widespread failure to understand the role of government in our economy and in our competitive position in world technology competition. Government funded research supported successful startups in computers, communications, nuclear power, and the aircraft and airline businesses. Many of our pharmaceuticals come from government laboratories or those in universities funded by the National Institutes of Health and other agencies. Al Gore didn’t invent the Internet; it was Darpanet, the program funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Burgeoning renewable energy industries in wind, solar, and batteries, are almost entirely dependent on government support.
For Reagan before and Pawlenty now, government is the problem. It’s not. It’s a very important partner as we go forward in a very competitive world
ROLF WESTGARD has residences in Deerwood and St. Paul. He’s a member of the Brainerd Dispatch Advisory Board, serves on a DFL board in Senate District 64 and is a contributor to DFL candidates in Crow Wing and Ramsey counties.
Comments (31)
Add commentIt's funny how they wail that
It's funny how they wail that 'government is the problem!' and in many cases are working the system and collecting government checks at the same time.
It's kind of like using the anti-government wail for a smoke screen to cover up their dependency on taxpayer dollars.
What the ???
Who created our 14 trillion dollar debt if it was not are highly efficient government? Are you serious? The way these politicians run our government IS the problem.
Rolf you don' know the Code.
In hockey the gloves drop when the opposition hinders the ability of the skilled players (money makers) from doing their job(scoring goals/winning games = creating revenue for the team ). This job usually is carried out by a specialized lesser skilled player that the team could do without for the majority of the game. Similar to the Democrat platform (tax the rich), eh?
"Republicans are the party
that says government is the problem... and then they get elected and prove it."
PJ O'Rourke (conservative political commentator)
Pawlenty; the Mike Tyson version
I especially liked the part about picking up the downed opponent and "whaling on him again." It was worth the price of the book.
REW
The quotes
If you happen to see the book, "Courage to Stand", the Pawlenty turned Tyson quotes are on page 61.
The Hockey Code
jjWilsen: You are right; I don't know the Hockey Code. But I still can't vision Pawlenty as the team enforcer. Skilled forward, maybe.
Rolf
Not only do you not know the "Hockey Code", but I think you should stick to energy. While I agree that Pawlenty would not have made a good choice for President, Obama is not exactly doing a bang up job either. Government is a problem when it gets to big to handle and when people rely too much on it. How much has the government grown under Obama?
I find it interesting that a Democratic Operative
is so worried about a Republican candidate that has dropped out of the race. Shouldn't you be more concerned with the ones that are still running? Better yet why aren't you trying to convince us that we should re-elect your Democrat candidate, Barack Obama.
Theme of my commentary
The theme of my editorial was the major role that government funded research has played in our economic growth and the continued importance of that role.
As to candidates, I haven't seen one from either party that seems to understand the tough choices ahead of us, or that has the political courage to make them.
REW
If that is your true feelings Rolf
then I am in complete agreement with you.
True feelings
I publish my true feelings. That's what gets me into trouble.
For example, the latest energy boondoggle from the administration is $510 million to manufacture aviation fuel for the military from non-food sources. We don't know how to do that in quantity, and today's corn ethanol costs much more for the Air Force than regular JP-8 fuel. Cellulosic ethanol costs even more than food ethanol even if we did know how to make it in quantity.
The $510 million program is justified by national security, but we can produce all the conventional aviation fuel we need here with oil from North America.
Then the EISA Act of 2007 mandates 250 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol for 2011. We will struggle to make 4 million gallons.
I ask, where do we find these clowns?
rolf
You find the clowns in the districts which are benefiting from the ethanol or whatever is being produced. Clowns in Congress: it's a new troupe.
Rolf - you make me wanna reach for the aspirin again....
Sir - spare us all and put aside the snipes and personal attacks on Republican candidates you don't like. If you wish to be respected for a sound factual opinion then step-up and prove worthy. Your note has rambled from Pawlenty, over to hockey, over to liberal spending, over to Coolidge & Harding, then to property taxes, then government pharmaceuticals,.... cripes sake - do you proofread at all?
If your central point is to say that the government does not represent the problem in these many issues then you certainly could better speak to their many great examples of success right before our eyes like:
- Amtrak (for instance)- oops, wait - they are still losing money despite over $1.3 billion in taxpayer funding. OK - maybe we should talk about something different like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for home buyers?
- Oops - Fannie Mae, misstated its earnings by $10.6 billion from 1998 through 2004 and had systematically manipulated its accounting activities in order to drive financial bonuses to its executives. Dang - maybe we should tout the success then of the Economic Development Administration (created during President Johnson's term).
- The EDA is tasked with a mission that is vague (“collaboration” is among its goals), its successes are undefined, and its funds are spread across hundreds of small, local projects. EDA ostensibly provides grants and loans to create jobs and growth in “distressed” regions of the country. Despite a history of wasteful projects such as funding for replicas of the Great Pyramids and the Great Wall of China in a small Indiana town (never completed). This program costs us all more than $293 million a year. Crap.
- How about the awesome US Postal Service? Dang - they too lost $3.8 billion last year and what do we hear about? Cutting service to try and stay afloat. Great....
- OK - how about something we ALL love and admire about government involvement in our lives = coming to the aid of disaster victims in their hour of need? Oops - dang again. Fraud related to Hurricane Katrina spending is estimated to top $2 billion. In addition, debit cards provided to hurricane victims were used to pay for Caribbean vacations, NFL tickets, Dom Perignon champagne, “Girls Gone Wild” videos, and at least one sex change operation. Auditors discovered that 900,000 of the 2.5 million recipients of emergency Katrina assistance provided false names, addresses, or Social Security numbers or submitted multiple applications.
Rolf - please - help me understand what you are seeing that is so efficient and worthy of being proud of?
Me - I prefer to vote for candidates who see the realities and are working to fix these corrupt systems. I do not want to see some politician elected who thinks he's able to spend my money smarter then me with another corrupt program.
We all await.
Satisfying CareBear
The Economic Development Administration has been funding projects in depressed areas(lots of them in red states) for about 50 years. Some are winners; some are losers. It does it under Republican and Democratic administrations.
For 44 cents the USPS will pick up a letter anywhere in northern MN and deliver it anywhere in the US. Even the Cato Institute(EDA critic) or any other private service can't do that.
I'm trying to remember who was in office during Katrina.
Social Security and Medicare operate with 3% total admin cost. End those and see the reaction from Republican seniors.
As eyewolf says, none of that was in my editorial. Please address the start of those major industries which owe their existence to government supported research.
Now you have a new hero from Texas who thinks GW is a hoax and wants to teach intelligent design ahead of physics. China will love that kind of competitor.
Katrina
The waste and fraud after Katrina is a reflection on Louisiana, its poverty and illiteracy, as well as their state government. Many churches sent groups there to help and they came back glad that they lived in Minnesota!
government clowns
Barnet: I think both political parties are about equal in the current very high clown percentage.
Rolf
"both political parties are
"both political parties are about equal in the current very high clown percentage"
While I fully agree with your spirit and ultimate intent here, Rolf, the Repubs overwhelmingly get the nod, now that the teabangers have attached themselves to the Repub party like a colostomy bag to Bluto.
stick to energy and pollution
at least you appear to be intelligent there.
Then again, according to ROLF, during I think it was the pleistocene era, the Earth knew it needed more CO2 so it produced more naturally so it could stay warmer. LMAO how doit know how to do dat ROLF? So in my eyes, your guest columns are kinda like the comics page... fun to read but once you read them for a while they all become gibberish.
Stick to politics
You won't get lost in geology with all those big words seeming like gibberish.
The Tea Party
Anni: I'll have to agree that the Tea Party is probably the current cake holder. They are pushing for a rerun of President Hoover's approach to the depression. Hoover, a well intentioned, intelligent mining engineer, thought that balancing the budget and cutting expenses was the way out. It wasn't. Employment tanked.
FDR came in and put in a lot of safeguard social programs and restrictions on financial speculation. He added some stimulus which helped, but it took the big stimulus of WWII to get prosperity going.
We need stimulus, but business is being prudent and trimming. As in WWII it will have to be government stimulus that gets us going. Just my HO.
Social programs, government stimulus
Are you nuts? I am trying to understand if you are actually saying we need to spend our way back to prosperity? Enlighten me!
rolf; irt to Hoover
President Hoover was running up massive budget deficits and the Roosevelt campaign, as well the 1932 democratic platform, was to end the out of control deficits.
1932 Democratic Party Platform:
"We favor maintenance of the national credit by a federal budget annually balanced on the basis of accurate executive estimates within revenues, raised by a system of taxation levied on the principle of ability to pay. "
FDR campaign speech in Atlanta, GA 10/24/1932:
"I should like to take this opportunity to say, loud enough to be heard in Washington, that even in hard times it is possible to have a balanced budget, and Governor Russell (of Georgia) has done it, and I want to say further that Governor Russell has done this by cutting expenditures rather than by loading the people with more taxation. And I want to say that loud enough to be heard in Washington, too."
I say all of this because I think Hoover has a bad reputation for his policies even though many were adopted by the Roosevelt Administration.
The quickest way out of this mess is
we should all just give everything we have to the government and work for the government. The government will feed us, cloth us, provide us our medical, cars, cell phones, education, etc. We won't have anything to worry about because the government will tell us not to worry. Think of the time and effort that will be saved from doing the meaningless things like, providing for our families, buying a home, buying a car or educating our children. I think I'm on to something here and no more bickering between parties because there will only be the government. All seeing, all knowing, all caring.
unemployment statistics
Minnesota unemployment for July which includes the shutdown: 7.2%
Texas unemployment under Perry for June: 8.2%
US unemployment: 9.2%
Gee, Dayton's MN beat Perry's Texas even with the government shutdown.
Pledges of the day
If you had to chose one...
Howard Schultz (Starbucks) vs. Grover Nordquist (Americans for Tax Reform) Pledges:
Schultz: Stop all campaign contributions to incumbents
Nordquist: The Taxpayer Protection Pledge
I kinda bet Howard Schultz Pledge
would do better than Grover Nordquist's Pledge for the economy long term.
lakelander
what do you think the % of illegal aliens working in Texas taking jobs from americans? What do you think the % in Minnesota is?