America's political version of a World Wrestling Federation free-for-all, the G.O.P's field of 2012 presidential candidates, just booted its first contestant from the ring, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty. Apparently, coming in third out of a group of eight candidates who campaigned in Iowa (Perry only joined the crowd on the day of the Iowa straw poll) wasn't a good enough showing for Pawlenty to continue fighting, so he bowed out of the ring the next day and packed his bags for Minnesota. Cheer up, governor, the good citizens of Iowa might have done you a favor – they saved your soul!
I don't agree with a majority of the positions Pawlenty takes on political issues, but he's the only genuine individual in that field of presidential pretenders, including Perry, who truly understands the plight of common ordinary Americans. The other Republicans are great with the rhetoric, and Perry or Romney might even beat Obama in the voting booth, but none of the remaining G.O.P. candidates are in the same league with Pawlenty when it comes to authenticity.
Political pundits will assign blame for the failure of Pawlenty's campaign on any number of items, but something tells me that Tim's authenticity is what proved to be his undoing. He's not the angry, frothing at the mouth warrior that Tea Party followers and evangelical extremists are looking for in a presidential candidate. He's just a very intelligent, level-headed, respectful kind of man who'd have to sell his soul to garner the Republican nomination. It's a good thing for him that it never came to that.
When I hear Perry, the accent is the same as George W. Bush. What scares me more is that he is considered to be to the right of Bush on policies. And, yes, at this point it looks like he could beat Obama if we let that happen but it's still early and there's plenty of work to do.
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