No doubt about it – from Post Politics:
In announcing his campaign for president in Iowa Monday, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty placed a big bet on boldness.
He called for a phasing out — albeit gradual — of federal ethanol subsidies, a move long considered a political death wish in a state with such a large agricultural community.
But, Pawlenty didn’t stop there. In his speech he detailed how he will travel this week to Florida — one of the oldest (by age) states in the country — to call for fundamental reform of Medicare and Social Security, to Washington to take on alleged largess in the federal government and to New York to make clear the era of bailouts of the financial industry is over…
That does take a pair of big, brassy ones. Of course, this is what Pawlenty must do to emerge from the pack. He’s little known outside political-junkie circles and he’ll need a sudden upsurge of enthusiastic, TEA Party support to have a shot – and if being gutsy costs him early in Iowa, it may still do him well in New Hampshire and South Carolina. All in all, its a good move – and, also, the right thing to do.
Because we really do need a Presidential candidate who is pledged to take on the status quo – even those parts of its ostensibly allied with the GOP. Our nation faces a bleak, impoverished future unless we get a handle on all the wasteful government spending – especially and including such long-time sacred cows as farm subsidies and Medicare. We just can’t keep spending as we have – to put it bluntly, if we want to help farmers and elderly and sick people, then massive amounts of spending will have to stop so that we can not only balance the budget, but find the funds to provide the services people genuinely need (for instance, each person scamming Medicare for what amounts to a welfare check is preventing that much aid from going to someone who really needs it).
We’ll see how far Pawlenty goes – first in how firm he is in defending himself from the firestorm he’s probably raised, secondly in how well the GOP base responds to this bit of leadership.
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