In a high-energy performance before the National Press Club in Washington today (Aug. 6), Gov. Tim Pawlenty humorously ducked The Question - his vice presidential ambitions - but otherwise spoke on Sam's Club Republicans, a perceived thinness in Barack Obama, and numerous national issues.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty was a headliner at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. today (Wednesday, Aug. 6), speaking on behalf of presumptive Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain. Pawlenty is national co-chair of the campaign.

(File photo by T.W. Budig, ECM Capitol Reporter)

by T.W. Budig
ECM Capitol reporter

In a high-energy performance before the National Press Club in Washington today (Aug. 6), Gov. Tim Pawlenty humorously ducked The Question - his vice presidential ambitions - but otherwise spoke on Sam's Club Republicans, a perceived thinness in Barack Obama, and numerous national issues.

A McCain campaign national co-chair and generally seen as on the shortlist of potential McCain running mates, Pawlenty injected the future of Packer quarterback Brett Favre in one of his ripostes against The Question while at the end of the hour-long appearance, when asked about the qualities of vice presidential candidate should have, Pawlenty offered a one-word answer.

"Discretion," he said.

Pawlenty's trip to Washington already made news in that an early address he indicated that Republican Party ideals had grown stale.

At the Press Club Pawlenty didn't back off the observation, saying party idealism was "a bit in the doldrums" but adding he believes that would soon change.

Touchstone of effectiveness

Republicans cannot compete with Democrats if the barometer of effective government is more programs, more money, said Pawlenty. "Because we will always be outbid," he said. But he indicated that was not the touchstone of effectiveness.

Fielding a question about the marketplace, Pawlenty lauded the perceived virtue of a free marketplace in that it self-corrects.

But people can get hurt in these corrections, he conceded.

Pawlenty, in addressing the mortgage giants government-chartered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - epicenters of the mortgage loan crisis - opined that they "should have been privatized a long time ago."

A basic unfairness exist, he argued, when stockholders prosper the good times and taxpayers foot the bill in the bad.

On the Iraq War - noting that he had visited the country three times - Pawlenty echoed McCain's stance of leaving the country in victory.

He argued against set time lines for withdrawal.

Pawlenty detailed his concept of Sam's Club Republicans - now a national term he may have coined - and fleshed out his ideas on the future of the Republican Party.

He never meant, Pawlenty explained, in bringing up the notion of a potential box-store Republicans that the party should jettison country club Republicans.

"We want to keep everyone in the party and grow it," said Pawlenty. "We've got to have it all," he said.

Must appeal to young voters

Republicans needed to do better in appealing to the young voters- the party needs a message and messengers, he said.

He spoke of a belated party focus on the environment, conservation and energy but one that's emerging.

Republican leaders also need to show interest in international compassion - another focus of the young, Pawlenty opined.

But Pawlenty warned that the evangelical vote is one that Republicans should continue to seek. "It's not a vote to be taken for granted," he said.

Although the Associated Press in a story indicted that Pawlenty had offered positive comments about Obama - that people gravitate toward positive leaders - before the press club Pawlenty said he had mentioned McCain in the same sentence.

Pawlenty contrasted McCain and Obama by saying the former had a real life story while the latter had oratory.

"Not even a close call in my book," Pawlenty said of the perceived difference.

On the question of national infrastructure, Pawlenty, who spent part of last Friday commemorating a collapsed bridge, spoke against congressional earmarks and styled the gas tax as politically untenable and as of diminishing value as a tax.

Pawlenty defended McCain's energy policy, expanded offshore drilling, by saying the energy demand is so voracious that both traditional and alternative energy source needed to be developed.

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