Words of Wisdom from Gov. Timmy

Mr. Pawlenty’s trip this weekend was his fifth to Iowa in less than a year, one of many signs that he is working the state as intently as any prospective Republican presidential hopeful.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota concluded a three-day visit to Iowa on Monday, his latest trip to the state that traditionally opens the presidential nominating contest. The Republican was campaigning for local party candidates, but said he planned to decide by early next year whether to run for president in 2012.

The Times’s Jeff Zeleny rode along with Mr. Pawlenty as he traveled from Waverly to Cedar Rapids, and interviewed the governor on the coming midterm elections, partisanship in Washington and more. Here are 10 questions from the interview, with some of the answers condensed.

Q. What is your take on the country’s mood and what are voters looking for?

A. “They’re frustrated and worried about whether they’re going to have jobs. And they’re really worried about government overreach and government spending. There are a lot of folks who are independents or Democrats – maybe conservative Democrats – who voted for President Obama and thought he might be more pragmatic or centrist than he’s turned out to be. They feel that he’s conducted a bait-and-switch operation on them, and now they’re going to fix it by voting Republican come November.”

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VV NOTE: As residents of Minnesota we have become dismayed with both Mr. Pawlenty's lack of constructive leadership at the helm of state and his oh-so-thinly-disguised run for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. Mr. Pawlenty is both charming and intelligent, two very positive traits in a politician when he has the best interests of the people in mind. But Mr. Pawlenty, despite a history of being a moderate Republican in the Minnesota House, has veered sharply into the "cut government and cut taxes" school of politics.

Despite his repeating and practicing this mantra ad nauseam, and through his refusal to find common ground with the Minnesota legislature, he has merely succeeded in shifting the tax burden from the state (income and sales taxes) to the county and local governments and school districts (property taxes). The result is county and local governments struggling to keep up with state mandates but without state funding, and many school districts, once the model for the nation, just trying to tread water.

Two examples of the Pawlenty legacy: Whereas once one had to cross the borders of Iowa and South Dakota to Minnesota to find good roads, now it's just the opposite. And perhaps even more telling of what a Pawlenty presidency might yield, the wealthiest Minnesotans actually pay a lower percentage of tax on their earnings than middle class Minnesotans.

The ultimate danger of Tim Pawlenty is not that he is just another George W. Bush, but that he is another George W. Bush with brains.