Rumors of Tim Pawlenty possibly accepting the Republican vice-presidential nomination have heated up again.
With the Obama campaign hard at work hammering away at Mitt Romney's record as the CEO of Bain Capital, Romney's vetting team may be looking at Pawlenty as someone who can distract attention away from Romney's finances and lingering questions as to when Romney left Bain Capital.
Grover Norquist, the head of Americans for Tax Reform, an anti-tax front group that is noted for its "Taxpayer Protection Pledge" that has been signed by most House and Senate Republicans, said about Pawlenty, "He was a little Scott Walker before Scott Walker." Norquist compared Pawlenty, the former Governor of Minnesota, to current Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who signed into law anti-collective bargaining measures against public-sector workers in Wisconsin, which prompted Democrats to force Walker to run in a recall election, which Walker won. Norquist did, however, criticize Pawlenty for raising cigarette taxes as Governor of Minnesota, which Pawlenty infamously referred to as a "health impact fee".
Mitt Romney, if elected President, will bring Scott Walker's "divide and conquer" agenda to the federal level. Tim Pawlenty, if picked by Romney as his running mate, will try to distract from Romney's record of offshoring and outsourcing. Don't be surprised if Romney picks his running mate within the next couple of days, because Romney knows that the Obama campaign has hammered away relentlessly on his record at Bain, and Romney will do anything to distract attention away from that. Regardless of whether Romney picks Rubio, Portman, Pawlenty, Jindal, Ryan, Walker, Ayotte, Martinez, Haley, Rice, or some other Republican as his running-mate, Romney will probably be looking to distract attention away from his record of offshoring and outsourcing.