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Pawlenty jabs at GOP for poorly marketing its ideas and ideals

John Nichols  —  5/17/2008 12:17 pm

If Republicans propose to compete seriously in the 2008 election campaign, they had better recognize that they are no longer seen as the party of ideas.

Who says? Some liberal pundit? Some Democratic operative?

No, it's the man whom many Republicans would like to see join John McCain on the party's national ticket this fall.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, the reasonably young, reasonably good-looking hot prospect on the GOP's "long short-list" of potential vice presidential nominees, received a warm reception from the crowd that gathered in Stevens Point for this weekend's Republican Party of Wisconsin convention.

But Pawlenty did not candy-coat his message.

Against the backdrop of Republicans losing a series of special elections for U.S. House seats that had historically been safely in the party's hands, and with the GOP struggling with low national approval ratings heading into the homestretch of the 2008 presidential race, Pawlenty said bluntly that the Grand Old Party had better start to market itself a whole lot better.

"If we're the marketplace party," the Minnesota governor told the crowd, "we've got to look each other in the eyeballs and see the warning lights are flashing on the dashboard."

Pawlenty explained that, "More people than we would like are choosing the products and services of our competitors."

The problem, he argued, is not Republican ideas. He says the GOP is still right about taxes and other issues.

Rather, Pawlenty suggests, Republicans are not presenting those ideas in a fresh and appealing way.

Instead of griping all the time about what the Democrats are doing, he said, Republicans should be proposing and advancing sound alternatives.

"I think we have to be more than just the accountants for the Democrats," the governor told reporters. "We just can't be the ones to say things are on the wrong track. We have to offer solutions."

Unmentioned by Pawlenty -- but certainly suggested by his presence and the tenor of his speech -- was the suggestion that a party that wants to revitalize its image might require something more than a sometimes grumpy 71-year-old senior senator to do the job.

Something more? Like, say, a fresh face from the Midwest as its candidate for vice president?

In addition to Pawlenty -- who claimed Friday that he has no aspirations of joining the ticket -- another vice presidential prospect, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, will address today's convention session. Ryan has been boomed by fiscal conservatives in Congress as the right running mate for McCain. Pennsylvania Republican Phil English, who serves with the Wisconsin congressman on the Ways and Means Committee, says, "Paul is Catholic, from the Rust Belt, and has the economic credentials Sen. McCain needs."

Despite Ryan's homestate advantage, delegates greeted Pawlenty warmly -- except when he rooted for the Vikings -- and said, as did Dave Anderson from western Wisconsin's Trempeleau County, "he's got to be on the short list" of McCain running-mate prospects.

For what it's worth -- if the party is really looking for a fresh face -- to run with the leathery McCain, Ryan is 38. Pawlenty is 47.

John Nichols  —  5/17/2008 12:17 pm