Okay, you gotta love a guy who calls for the end of ethanol subsidies in…Iowa.
That, in my opinion, is a lot better than charisma. Heck, it IS charisma.
Human Events reports:
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty kicked off his presidential campaign today in a town hall style event in Iowa and sought to fill the “straight talk” vacuum created by Mitch Daniels’ announcement over the weekend that he would not be a candidate for president.
“Conventional wisdom says you can’t talk about ethanol in Iowa or Social Security in Florida or financial reform on Wall Street,” Pawlenty said. “In my campaign, I’m going to take a different approach. I am going to tell you the truth. The truth is, Washington’s broken.”
In a bold move in a state where politicians pander to the ethanol lobby and joke about taking shots of ethanol, Pawlenty said he was here to tell “Iowans the truth, too.”
“The truth about federal energy subsidies, including federal subsidies for ethanol, is that they have to be phased out,” Pawlenty said. “We need to do it gradually. We need to do it fairly. But we need to do it.”
Pawlenty is probably going to step into the Mitch Daniels role now that Daniels has said he won’t run. I’ve seen Pawlenty speak once at a dinner and he was very good. Nevertheless I found his rollout lackluster. He was devoid of charisma. But I submit that this is a manifestation of the New Charisma: the guy who has experience rather than glamour, and speaks candidly rather than messianically. Nobody is going to faint over T-Paw. Sure, the ethanol thing could be Sister Soulja effective, but it is also a risk.