Tim Pawlenty - Palin's New John Binkley

Don't know who John Binkley is? You will.

Tim Pawlenty gave a speech in Iowa today on the health care bill:

“We’ve got Congress -- Democratic-controlled Congress -- messing around with a miserable health care bill,” he said. “They should be focused like a laser on jobs, not acting like a manure-spreader in a wind storm.”

Nice. I like it, keep it up.

Now, how does John Binkley fit into all of this? Well, John Binkley was a fellow Republican who ran against Sarah in the primary for Governor of Alaska. Sarah had a fairly consistent message throughout her race, and she was not afraid to point out where she disagreed with the current Governor of that time who was also running in the primary, pretty much always in third place.

Anyway, John Binkley at some point realized that he would have to start slamming Murkowski too, and so he did. Problem was, he was too late; Sarah beat him to that punch. John Binkley seems like he's a nice guy, kinda like Pawlenty. Like Binkley, there's nothing about Pawlenty that I particularly dislike, it's just that he's always about two steps behind Sarah Palin. Why go for the guy who's just doing what the frontrunner is doing?

By the way, Sarah defeated Binkley and Murkowski quite handily.

John Binley sits on the right next to his wife, watching Sarah take on Joe Biden.

Palin vs. Pawlenty on Hoffman Endorsement

Matthew E. Miller has a piece on Race42012. Not intended to be a Palin smear piece, it mocks the idea that Pawlenty was left out in the cold because Palin endorsed first. Read it here. An excerpt:

You get that? Palin was a genius for endorsing Hoffman, but when Pawlenty doesn’t have a decision ready two hours later, he’s a “loser” and a member of the “milquetoast establishment”. Boy I’m sure glad Palin delivered her endorsement in time for that 8:30 PM, October 23 deadline. Two minutes later and surely she’d have been on the wheel. Or wait… maybe the deadline only applies if you actually make a statement on the issue. So Palin would have been off the hook, then?

My response:

Yes, Hoffman has been out there for awhile and Palin just endorsed him. So what difference does it make if Pawlenty's a couple days later?

Palin was the first to endorse Doug Hoffman who has a shot at the White House. Fred Thompson can do whatever he wants without consequence. Palin, a potential 2012 candidate, went up against the GOP and Newt Gingrich before any other potentials that I am aware of. Huckabee just gave some lame excuse of why he hasn't endorsed Hoffman on Cavuto, and Pawlenty may endorse, but why not follow suit now that someone else has stepped out first?

Yes, Palin waited a little longer than many were calling for, but she was the first relevant figure, the first person of any consequence, to endorse Hoffman. Not only that, but she endorsed with both feet. She didn't just hand Hoffman some lip service; she threw her full weight behind him and slammed the GOP in the process.

In that sense, yeah, Pawlenty missed the boat.