In Timmy's Head

Former Minnesota governor and failed presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty has had an interesting month. For a while, there, he was being pimped, big-time, as vice-presidential material.  Willard Mitt Romney had reportedly determined to go the do-no-harm, boring-white-guy route, and Pawlenty certainly fits the latter part of that description.  I'm not sure, though, that choosing somebody with no chance of helping the ticket carry his home state, and who has the rush-hour collapse of a major bridge, among many other negatives, on his resume, particularly fits "do-no-harm."  But Mitt's pickings are so slim as to be almost invisible.

This past weekend, though, Pawlenty kind of said that he doesn't want it. Remember, he was considered pretty much the front-runner for the position in 2008, and then was spurned at the last moment for "Simple" Sarah Palin.  That had to hurt.

With that history, what's going on, now?  There's no question that TBag still has big-time ambitions.  The last sitting vice presidents that went on to their party's presidential nomination, after their bosses' times at the top were up, both won their elections, though one was denied the White House.  (George H.W. Bush was the other.)  I provide a little psychological analysis, of a sort, below the fold.
The best analogy that I've been able to come up with, for trying to understand what's going on in Pawlenty's mind with this whole VP thing, is the complex of emotions churning in my own mind, while approaching a lady for a date, unsure as to whether my advances will be encouraged or rejected.  The usefulness of this comparison, as I see it, is that just about everyone can relate, regardless of gender or orientation, and of how long it's been.  The hopefulness, the vulnerability, the nerves...

The thing is, if you're denied in that context, you can quickly pick yourself up and move on, if you like.  Opportunities at big-time political office are not so readily accessible.  So, for where Tea-Paw is at, you could perhaps imagine it like I noted in the preceding paragraph, and take it to the tenth power.  No wonder that he seems skittish.

Gutshot certainly doesn't want to be humbled - indeed, humiliated - yet again. But I think that there is also a pragmatic element to his lack of interest.  With the exception of the aforementioned Palin, (and, I suppose, John Edwards) VP candidates on losing campaigns end up being about as forgettable as public figures can be.  (I know that us politics-heads can name Walter Mondale's and Bob Dole's VP picks, but I'm talking about the public at large.)  And, whatever corporate media propagandists and "I-told-you-so" Chicken Littles on the left might continually proclaim, the Romney campaign is sure looking like a loser, right now.  You can't blame Timmy, for wanting no part of that.