Pawlenty Studies: Collapse Or Revival?

Reihan Salam notes Tim Pawlenty’s miserable results in a recent national poll.  Pawlenty is losing to Gingrich, Cain, Santorum, and Ron Paul.  Salam finds it interesting that this collection of . . . idiosyncratic people are all beating the guy running as a conventional conservative (who I might add was arguably a very good governor of a Democratic-leaning state.)  I think it is a testament to just how disastrous Pawlenty’s high profile public appearances (CPAC and the two debates) have been so far.

On the other hand, Pawlenty is now in second place in a recent Iowa poll.  Romney seems to be slipping badly and Cain’s increasingly hard-to-respect campaign is falling off.  Pawlenty needs to consolidate the non-Bachmann vote in Iowa, destroy her there, and then hope to have emerged as the only viable non-Romney after the New Hampshire primary.  

Today, Pawlenty implied that Bachmann’s migraines might make her a problematic choice for President.  I saw Pawlenty make a comment to that effect on today’s 6:00 PM Fox News show.  He looked and sounded a little bit like Gil Gunderson from the Simpsons. Romney thinks the migraine issue should be dropped.  He sounded more like Eddie Haskell ( You’re looking very healthy today Mrs. Bachmann .)  Romney and Bachmann are now best friends until at least the night of the New Hampshire primary.