You know...there are a lot of Minnesotan's on the blog trashing Pawlenty as a possible VP choice. They are mad about his budget balancing convictions. That he pushed some of the responsibility to the local level to make cuts or fund programs. Fiscal responsibility isn't fashionable...but it is respectable way beyond the dribble posted here. Pawlenty has veto'd a lot of spending bills the DFL continues to push. It isn't like the US has a spending problem? We need people in office that are responsible...ethically and fiscally. He'd be fine as a VP.

I apologize on behalf of all the DFL hacks from Minnesota stating that Gov. Pawlenty is unintelligent or unpopular. In fact, he is well respected by the indepedent Minnesotan and is highly intelligent. He would make an excellent VP choice. My only regret would be that we would lose an excellent Governor.

The media is only focusing on Obama changing his position concerning his decision not to take public funds( taxpayers). What about McCain, who stated intially that he would take public funds during the primary and changed his mind and only took private funds.

Circumstances change and a leader has to be adaptable and have the wisdom and good judgment to know when to change. Obama has demonstrated excellent judgment by not accepting public funds from tax payers but opting to continue to take funds from small donors via the internet, which is a form of public funding.

When Obama stated that he would accept public funds in the general election, he did not know that he would receive more funds from small donors (test)through the internet. However, Obama now knows that he could obtain more funds through this method.

Therefore, Obama would not be making a good business decison to coninue on a path that was less favorable for his campaign. Obama has good judgment and decided to do that which is most beneficial to his campaign. I admire him for running his campaign like a machine. By him managing his camapaign in this manner, I have full confidence in his ability to run this nation, particulary the economy, also with excellence.

His actions proves that he knows how to run an economy, as compared to McCain who has stated that he has limited knowledge about the economy. Obama will defintely get my vote in November and many other independents who I know supports him as well !

It startles me to see the words, "Pawlenty generally wins kudos for his handling of a massive budget shortfall..." in The Fix. Any Minnesotan will tell you that Pawlenty "corrected" the state's budget shortfall (created in the Ventura era, by the way) by canceling numerous budget items devoted to local governments -- forcing nearly every community in the state to pass sharp increases in their property taxes. Don't be fooled by this fiscal responsibility claim. It will all come out in the vetting process if Pawlenty is chosen. There was nothing magic about Pawlenty's budget making. He took everything away from communities, forced them to raise taxes at the local level, and now he wears the disingenuous banner of a No New Taxes Politician. On top of all this, Minnesotans can't articulate one thing Pawlenty has ever accomplished.

The reversal of Obama on Campaign Finance is beginning to appear as if Obama is elected, this country is headed for the THIRD NIXON ADMINISTRATION.

Please do not let that happen.

Clearly Obama is advocating OLD POLITICS OVER NEW POLITICS - in fact Obama is supporting going BACKWARDS TO A NIXONIAN ERA IN WHICH CAMPAIGN CASH HAS NO LIMITS.

Remember CREEP and the bagloads of campaign cash all over the place? The TWA situation??? ahhhhh.......

Washington Post please run the old stories to refresh everyone. Obama's support is from the young people who do not remember Watergate or who were born after those scandals.

.

The reversal of Obama on Campaign Finance is beginning to appear as if Obama is elected, this country is headed for the THIRD NIXON ADMINISTRATION.

Please do not let that happen.

Clearly Obama is advocating OLD POLITICS OVER NEW POLITICS - in fact Obama is supporting going BACKWARDS TO A NIXONIAN ERA IN WHICH CAMPAIGN CASH HAS NO LIMITS.

Remember CREEP and the bagloads of campaign cash all over the place? The TWA situation??? ahhhhh.......

Washington Post please run the old stories to refresh everyone. Obama's support is from the young people who do not remember Watergate or who were born after those scandals.

.

The reversal of Obama on Campaign Finance is beginning to appear as if Obama is elected, this country is headed for the THIRD NIXON ADMINISTRATION.

Please do not let that happen.

Clearly Obama is advocating OLD POLITICS OVER NEW POLITICS - in fact Obama is supporting going BACKWARDS TO A NIXONIAN ERA IN WHICH CAMPAIGN CASH HAS NO LIMITS.

Remember CREEP and the bagloads of campaign cash all over the place? The TWA situation??? ahhhhh.......

Washington Post please run the old stories to refresh everyone. Obama's support is from the young people who do not remember Watergate or who were born after those scandals.

.

The reversal of Obama on Campaign Finance is beginning to appear as if Obama is elected, this country is headed for the THIRD NIXON ADMINISTRATION.

Please do not let that happen.

Clearly Obama is advocating OLD POLITICS OVER NEW POLITICS - in fact Obama is supporting going BACKWARDS TO A NIXONIAN ERA IN WHICH CAMPAIGN CASH HAS NO LIMITS.

Remember CREEP and the bagloads of campaign cash all over the place? The TWA situation??? ahhhhh.......

Washington Post please run the old stories to refresh everyone. Obama's support is from the young people who do not remember Watergate or who were born after those scandals.

.

It's official the crazies are now on the Obama team. Always well thought out Chris, wish the Barry Obama nutters were as such.

I know Facts are scary things for the wingnut crowd - but lets try a few.

A few of you incorrectly state that Sen. Obama has had a a "reversal" of his previous position on public funding - or "reneged".

He most definitely did not either "reverse" or "renege".

The following is a verbatim exchange that took place on February 27, 2008 during a debate moderated by the late Tim Russert:

RUSSERT: So you may opt out of public financing. You may break your word.

OBAMA: What I've said is, at the point where I'm the nominee, at the point where it's appropriate, I will sit down with John McCain and make sure that we have a system that woks for everybody.

I fully expected you to have also inaccurately allude to a questionnaire that Sen. Obama filled out from the Midwest Democracy Network asking if he would accept public funding, to which Sen. Obama did, indeed, answer in the affirmative.

But I also bet, given your proclivities as a Republican sycophant, you will fail to include the he also concomitantly added - in writing - to that answer the following conditions:

"In February 2007, I proposed a novel way to preserve the strength of the public financing system in the 2008 election. My plan requires both major party candidates to agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors, and stay within the public financing system for the general election. My proposal followed announcements by some presidential candidates that they would forgo public financing so they could raise unlimited funds in the general election. The Federal Election Commission ruled the proposal legal, and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has already pledged to accept this fundraising pledge. If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election."

Now I realize that this runs counter to what Faux News has tried to convince you constitutes "fair and balanced" - but while people are entitled to their own opinion, they are NOT entitled to their own set of facts.

Republicans have done nothing but lose and keep losing since Pawlenty took over as governor. The Democrats now have a supermajority in the senate, after being near parity in 2003, and gained back the house in 2006 with a large margin. Republicans have lost in suburbs they easily won for generations.

He's also very hard right on social issues, and combined with McCain's increasing move to the extreme right, that will alienate quite a few voters.

As someone who is rooting for Obama, I would love for McCain to pick Carly Fiorina. She single-handedly destroyed the culture of a once-great research and development corporation and left with a golden parachute. She would be an anchor around McCain's neck.

from a longtime Mn resident and casual political junkie (I don't inhale).....Two things; one Obama and the Dems are organizing this state DEEPLY; I suspect turnouts and vote totals, and the demographics reflected therein, will be quite different than recent elections and quite possibly a paradigm change. This will doubtlessly be true in other states as well. In MN, it will not only be reflected in the US Senate race, but normally "safe: seats in MN-02 and MN-06 and will offset much effect Pawlenty might have on the ticket.

Second, Pawlenty himself admits to staging the call request from Cheney to step aside for Coleman; still a deft touch of political mastery, but Chris should include it in any related coverage.

Compliments to the nice persona of Tim Pawlenty. But something tells me that McCain is going to lose this election if he doesn't shake up the campaign and, like the Democrats, go for history. I think he should pick Carly Fiorina, who has shown herself a wonderful answerer to all the questions of the media. Smarts, wisdom and prudence. Eventually HP did very well. She speaks with candor too; she isn't all packaged and she knows how the country works. A "with-it" real conservative too, who can appeal to the base and yet draw in independents too (and Hillary supporters!). Carly has charisma. Go Carly Go!
McCain-Fiorina 08

By the time McCain chooses his veep, he'll be enough behind in the polls that his choice will need to do one of two things: either create an exciting buzz in a large part of the electorate (independents, say) or it will have to be a geographical play for electoral votes (Charlie Crist). Minnesota is not a big enough prize, nor is Pawlenty a lock to deliver it, nor does he elicit any buzz. Can't see McCain choosing him given the underdog dynamic.

Opting out of the Campaign Finance System - a system designed to limit the influence of Washington lobbyists - is the first big COMMITMENT TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WHICH OBAMA HAS BROKEN - CLEARLY THE AMERICAN PEOPLE CAN NOT TRUST OBAMA TO DO WHAT HE SAYS.

Obama is a disgrace.

Obama committed to take public funds - now Obama is going against his word. That makes Obama a LIAR AGAIN.

Sorry if the obamatrolls are unhappy.

With such little experience, the Empty Suit Obama has shown the American People again that he simply can not be trusted. Michele Obama made a slip the other day when she called Obama "pathetic" - I think she calls him pathetic all the time and she just repeated it on national television by course of habit.

.

I feel like I need a dictionary to compete with H.L. Mencken here. Whew!

Minnesota (my beloved home state) will vote overwhelmingly Obama in the fall, even if Jesus is the Republican VP nominee.

However, I can see the allure of a virtual unknown like Pawlenty. Young, fresh, and as far as the country knows, he handled the 35W collapse admirably. He did do a good job, it was his cronies in the DOT that dropped the ball.

He's also REALLY tall.

I too visited the Wooddale Church website. In addition to the comments on divorce and adultery, there is a values section regarding the church's mission with the following last sentence: "Wooddale Church is a nuclear generator powered by God, constantly releasing energy to give more and light in many directions." I'm wondering if Senator McCain was inspired by this in his recent proclamation for more nuclear plants. It makes things confusing as I thought when these folks talked about Jesus going nuclear they were talking about Armageddon but I'll leave that topic to the Reverend Hagee.

It seems to me the primary reason for a Pawlenty pick is his ties to the evangelical community combined with his outsider and up by the bootstraps story.

Now to help The Fix with tomorrow's piece. First is that Pawlenty is not popular and he is not unpopular. I live on the border of WI & MN. The guys at the bar knew who Tommy Thompson (former R gov of WI) was and they liked him. They don't know who Pawlenty is. My point is that there is no guaranteed connection with the "Reagan Democrats." Pawlenty will not carry MN for McCain in the fall.

Second just before the I35 bridge collapsed there was a large push to pass a transportation bill that would have raised gas taxes and fix roads. Pawlenty was publicly opposed to it. The measure failed and then the bridge collapsed and suddenly he had to do an about face on transportation spending. McCain has to ask himself will this become an issue and if it does, how badly will it hurt in the current atmosphere.

what a sniveling pusillanimous dweeb you are! YOU ARE TOTALLY VACUOUS OF THE REAL WORLD AROUND YOU YET YOU INSIST THAT YOU AND YOUR CROWD KNOW IT ALL! You are a hopeless sophist and I am a democrat. What do you think republicans think? Obama and the democratic party do not need your obdurate contribution of nieveity! Keep it for college campuses!Down right elitist sophitry! Your radical thinking has no place in our american society! You and Chris Mathews shuld be shot at dawn!

Chris your image reninds me that you can't fix stupid

Perhaps it is a bit soon and far to brusque for those that did not know MR. Russert personally to begin wondering and rendering an academic examination of the affects and influence he wielded among his compeers in the American political press-indeed the entire democratic party!

But even lay amateur historians have started agglutinations and collations of events that lead to the path of the present radical proposed political change to the new neophillia American zeitgeists of today's Presidential campaign that bears his social and exclusive catholic dogma! It appears from all accounts that he was the catalyst of the innovation of the "new politics" that were the co-invention of Ted Kennedy a fellow catholic cohort that shares his same zest for the traditional behavior memes and religious rituals! Apparently his plan was to adopt a Christian catholic moral template that universally appealed to all Americans regardless of color or creed but assiduously injected traditional guilt for past white racial sins!
Did he act as a tribal shaman in form of a catholic priest to assuage collaboration and cooperation of the new American progressives with the old democratic liberal crowd?Was he attempting to form a neophillia paradigm of thought and behavior morality, that is ubiquitously accepted by religious proseltyletes and atheist alike? Did he envisioned a God based American Catholic catechism for all that competed aggressively for republican votes?

No he believed in the simple doctrine of first confession and than redemption and the forgiveness of sins! He applied this catholic template to the present American body politic and consequently encouraged a meaningful act of contrition initiated through age old catholic guilt! He recommended a behavior political mea culpa of the white races abandonment of power gained through exclusive occupation of the white house!Then and only then would there exist unpermutated racial equality in America! For him this was the primary issue of the day!

Of course utilizing a catholic template to determine social priorities leaves vacuous any hope now or in the future that gender equality would equate with racial equality in political social priorities! Traditional catholic hierarchy has long relegated the female gender to a lower status within the tribe so Tim puissantly pushed his noble priestly agenda to the present day-until Friday!

His efforts virtually ambushed and tarnished the shine and glimmer so long placed upon the historic dream of a female in the white house! The long held political dream for females were once again in American history placed upon back burner of American politics!

I'm afraid that anyone McCain picks in order to bridge his gap with the far-right religious will bring enough baggage to sink McCain's chances with the general electorate which does not share the religious rights belief system. Pawlenty, for example, belongs to a church that's current website features this: "HARD SAYINGS OF JESUS - NO DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE - Jesus' teaching that divorce and remarriage add up to the sin of adultery is a dramatically different standard than our culture's 'no fault' divorces and frequent remarriages"---Come to think of it, even John McCain, who would be labeled an "adulterer" under this standards, might have trouble with Pawlenty's church.

The case against will likely focus on how the University of Minnesota has been gutted under Pawlenty. There are hundreds of thousands of U of Minnesota alumni very peeved at Pawlenty for destroying their alma mater.

We here in Minnesota would love to have Pawlenty on the ticket. It would make Obama's sweep of the state that much sweeter. The bridges are falling down here (in case you hadn't heard), tuitions have skyrocketed, education funding is down, people are being thrown out of the state's medical insurance net, etc. I could go on. Pawlenty only won reelection because the demos nominated a real nasty guy to run against him. Pawlenty is a tool of the no taxes rich crowd...to whom he gave (like Bush) a huge tax break in 2003. Please remember....there is a better than average chance that McCain veep will actually become president. Pawlenty isn't the guy.

If Pawlenty gets picked by McCain and if they win Minnesota will being doing very well in history for its number of recent VPs when the size of the State is considered with three, Humphrey, Mondale and Pawlenty. However, I don't think that will happen as Obama will win --- in Minnesota and in the electoral college.

there's some other good commentary deep in the thread, for folks interested in substance. the post by teacher1 at 10:01 AM offers good insight.

For the folks saying 'good riddance': do you really want to see Carol Molnau ascend to the governorship?

"In fact society at large has a keen interest in an educated populace"

Yeah, but Republicans draw all their power from the uneducated in our society. Is it any wonder that they do all they can to savage our educational system?

Chris- good writeup. I look forward to the followup.

For an election that is so intense and so closely and widely followed, I would suggest a more nationally known figure. You don't want a vp who overshadows the nominee, but you can go too far in the opposite direction as well. While I never took the Condoleeza Rice rumors too seriously, at least she was a familiar quantity to most voters. Pawlenty is mainly associated, perhaps unfairly, with the bridge collapse. It's hard for me to picture him as Commander in Chief (should that be necessary). But maybe the process of campaigning will tell us more about why that's a good idea.

If Pawlenty is so great, make him the candidate and have McDole as the VP.

Why does anyone think that this empty suit has what it takes to cast a tie-breaking vote or step into the presidential shoes? He has a nice haircut? Oy. I can already see the VP debates "GOvernor, I knew Dan Quayle, he was a good friend of mine. You are no Dan Quayle."

Fairlington:

Why not take that argument to its logical conclusion: no public education, pay for your own.

In fact society at large has a keen interest in an educated populace, and my child's right to a decent education shouldn't be conditional based on where I live, or the extent of taxable local wealth, or the present willingness of local voters to meet a common duty to educate the next generation - just as most of them were educated at public expense.

Sorry to threadjack, but Chris should have something on Obama's decision to reneg on his pledge to go with public funds.

Guess he's just another politician? His excuse was: the public-financing system is broken, so I'm going to opt out.

I guess it wasn't broken when he made the pledge though.

Too bad. Might as well stay home this Nov.

Patrick:

"Pawlenty, good guy or not, is not going to give McCain a big boost, and he needs one (think Mondale/Ferraro)."

Because that worked out so well for President Mondale, I guess.

Plenty of opportunities, per the other comments, for Pawlenty to do Pawlenty of harm - I say pick him!

Chris:

I see the Tinfoil Hat Brigade is up and running this morning.

Please, PLEASE show these comments to the Powers That Be and insist they commit whatever resources are necessary to block/filter the nutbar anonymous posters who continue to ruin The Fix!

Expect "pawlenty" of ads showing bridges falling down if this guy gets tapped for the veep slot.

I am a Minnesota independent voter how happens to like Pawlenty. I think he is a very intelligent leader who understands the issues. I think he hurt himself in Minnesota by taking his "no new taxes" pledge, but that says more about the state of the Republican Party elite than it does about Pawlenty. He needed to do that to get the party's nomination. After he helped balance the budget by cutting spending, etc. and raising some fees, but keeping probably 95% of his ill-advised tax pledge, it was the far-right flank of the party that skewered him. Apparently to these nuts compromising 5% makes a person impure. I used to believe that if you needed to compromise and got 60% of what you wanted and your opponent got 40% you did OK.
Either way, Minnesota is not going Republican this year. The last time the state went that way was 1972 and T-Paw's presence on the ticket will not affect that in any way.

I am a Minnesota independent voter how happens to like Pawlenty. I think he is a very intelligent leader who understands the issues. I think he hurt himself in Minnesota by taking his "no new taxes" pledge, but that says more about the state of the Republican Party elite than it does about Pawlenty. He needed to do that to get the party's nomination. After he helped balance the budget by cutting spending, etc. and raising some fees, but keeping probably 95% of his ill-advised tax pledge, it was the far-right flank of the party that skewered him. Apparently to these nuts compromising 5% makes a person impure. I used to believe that if you needed to compromise and got 60% of what you wanted and your opponent got 40% you did OK.
Either way, Minnesota is not going Republican this year. The last time the state went that way was 1972 and T-Paw's presence on the ticket will not affect that in any way.

PAWLENTY, good guy but borrrrring (no help to McCain)

PALIN, exciting/energy (great help to McCain AND GOP)

Everyone loves and respects a good soldier, but for some reason the public opinion is that Barack would make a better president than McCain.
http://www.votenic.com

Howard Dean Schemes To Shut Down Democratic Convention--June 12, 2008 (LPAC)--Billionaire George Soros's lap dog DNC Howard Dean is trying to shut the 18 million loyal Democratic and independent voters who supported Hillary Clinton out of the Denver convention altogether. In addition to reports that the Obama campaign is pushing to actually unseat all the Clinton delegates and replace them with Obama loyalists, there are more recent reports that Howard Dean is trying to prevent any balloting for the Democratic nominee, and instead is trying to just ram through a voice vote for Obama, without a state-by-state roll call. Even after the two parties turned their nominating conventions into ersatz rock concerts, it was always the case that the losing candidates were all given the opportunity to speak from the podium, and a full vote taken, before the anointed candidate was confirmed. Usually, in a gesture of party unity, after the first ballot vote was taken, a motion would be presented to endorse the candidate by unanimous consent. These traditions actually did have the effect of unifying the party, often after a tight and hotly contested primary season, and at least conveyed the idea that the party came out of the convention unified behind the Presidential and VP nominees, going into the November general elections. Clearly, between the Obama campaign and Howard Dean, there is a great deal of worry that the vicious campaign that was run against Hillary Clinton has created a level of fury, which could explode at the convention. Soros, Dean, Pelosi, Reid, and the Obama, have generated much bad blood that Hillary Clinton supporters are turned into Hillary Clinton fanatics. According to one well-placed Washington source, if 20% of the Hillary Clinton voters sit out the November elections, a loss of 4 million potential Obama voters--IF, Obama wound up with the nomination in the first place. That could spell certain doom for Obama's already-doomed candidacy.

Obama to Forgo Public Funds for CampaignDecision frees up presumptive Democratic nominee to collect money privately, which may be a help to him strategically ahead of election.Associated Press | 9:32 a.m. ET
===========================================

Wonder if this above announcement coincides to other reports about Obama having been bankrolled by billionaire George Soros and his inner circle of millionaires since 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008 as of at most two weeks ago? What happened Obama? Too many people learning that you are no more than a PHONEY????

Soros Bankrolling MoveOn in Last Gasp Move To Steal the Nomination for Obama
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June 3, 2008 (LPAC)--Millions of dollars are being conduited through a George Soros front organization, in a desperate effort to buy up superdelegates for Senator Barack Obama, according to well-placed Washington sources. ``They suddenly have a nearly bottomless pool of cash,'' one Washington insider reported.

MoveOn was launched in September 1998, at the peak of the drive to impeach President Bill Clinton, ostensibly to counter the impeachment drive with a more ``modest'' demand for Clinton's censure by the U.S. Congress. This occurred at exactly the moment that President Clinton was promoting the need for a ``new global financial architecture,'' and at the same time that the LaRouche movement was leading the Committee to Save the Presidency, by going hard after the Mellon Scaife and neocon network behind the impeachment drive. Whereas the Committee to Save the Presidency assailed then-Vice President Al Gore for his collusion with Joseph Lieberman, in attempting to force Clinton to resign, MoveOn has been a big booster of Gore for years. Gore and Howard Dean both promoted MoveOn after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

By Autumn 2003 at the latest, MoveOn had been gobbled up by George Soros, and his inner sanctum of billionaires, like Cleveland insurance magnate Peter Lewis, and Phoenix University founder and CEO John Sperling, both of whom had colluded with Soros throughout the 1990s to promote drug legalization, via the Drug Policy Foundation. At the initial meeting in Autumn 2003, between Soros and the co-founders of MoveOn, San Francisco IT execs Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, Soros, his son Jonathan Soros, Peter Lewis, and Peter Bing kicked in over $6 million. By various news accounts, based on FEC and IRS filings, by 2006, MoveOn had received more than $30 million from Soros and Lewis.

``Grassroots'' organization MoveOn has other billionaires among its benefactors, including two members of the Rockefeller family, who have been funding the group since 1999. Laurence Rockefeller and Wendy Rockefeller, both big boosters of the League of Conservation Voters and other radical Malthusian environmental outfits, have given undisclosed amounts of money to MoveOn. The Pritzker family of Chicago (Penny Pritzker is treasurer of the Obama for President Campaign) are big contributors to MoveOn, with Linda Pritzker, a billionaire Tibetan Buddhist, transplanted from Chicago to western Montana, having given a reported $4 million alone to the Soros group.

Now, Democratic Party sources report, that pool of cash is being targeted towards buying up superdelegate endorsements for Barack Obama. Former Senator and Presidential candidate John Edwards signed up for the Obama campaign one day after his antipoverty group received big financial backing from a string of other Soros-bankrolled groups, including Center for American Progress Action Committee and ACORN. Both groups are on the short list of ``approved'' organizations, funded by Soros' Democracy Alliance, an organization launched by Soros in 2004, and made up of 70 billionaires, who agreed in 2004 to pool their funds, to take over the Democratic Party.

Lyndon LaRouche has emphasized that the Anglo-Dutch financial oligarchy, which created and owns British agent George Soros, has no intention of actually allowing Barack Obama to be elected President. His sole mission is to stop Hillary Clinton from getting the nomination. There is good reason to believe that George Soros is totally aware of, and in on, this plan. Soros has been a major financial backer to John McCain, according to a variety of published reports. When McCain and Sen. Russ Feingold were pushing their McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill through the Senate, Soros front groups gave a reported $18 million to the effort to mobilize support. And more recently, Soros' Open Society Institute was a major donor to McCain's Reform Institute.

How Soros Financed Obama's Campaign
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May 30, 2008 (LPAC)--In late 2006, George Soros, the British empire/Wall Street gatekeeper of the Left, vetted Senator Barack Obama's potential Presidential candidacy on behalf of financier oligarchs. Soros then introduced Obama to a selected financier group, and Obama soon afterwards announced he would seek the White House.

Soros's involvement with Obama's brief national political career had begun two years earlier with Soros fundraising for Obama's campaign for U.S. senate, and continued through the 2007 Presidential campaign launch with huge fundraising operations by Soros and his circle.

SOROS AND OBAMA - A Preliminary chronology

2004: The London-Wall Street axis singled out Obama, then an Illinois state senator, as their "Rising Star" in U.S. politics. The Rockefellers' family political agency known as the League of Conservation Voters endorsed Obama in the Democratic U.S. senate primary, ran TV ads on the Rising Star theme, and directly funded Obama's national career manager, consultant David Axelrod.

Obama's opponent in the Democratic primary, Blair Hull, was a self-financed millionaire, so Obama used the "millionaires' exception" to the campaign finance law to take $12,000 each from donor, six times the ordinary limit at that time. Thus nearly half of his $5 million primary funding came from 300 donors.

George Soros raised $60,000 of this Obama funding, with his own donations and those he procured from his family. Soros reportedly met with Obama first in March -- a mere state senator, Obama was the only candidate in the country with whom Soros met personally during the 2004 election cycle, according to Soros spokesman Michael Vachon (quoted by CNS News, July 27, 2004). On June 7, 2004, Obama was in Soros' New York home for an Obama campaign fundraising event.

December 4, 2006: Obama met with George Soros in Soros' mid-town Manhattan office. After an hour interview, Soros took Obama into a conference room where a dozen plutocrats waited to talk with Obama. Key among them were UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland/Swiss Bank) U.S. chief Robert Wolf, and hedge fund manager Orin Kramer.

December, 2006, a week later, Robert Wolf had dinner in Washington D.C. with Barack Obama to map out campaign strategy.

Early January, 2007: Obama announced his Presidential candidacy. The New York Times announced that candidate Obama had nailed the support of two highest-level Democratic fundraisers: George Soros and Robert Wolf. By mid-April, 2007, Wolf had raised $500,000 for Obama.

Mid-January, 2007: Wolf ran a dinner for Obama in Washington, with potential bundlers Jim Torrey, Brian Mathis, Jamie Rubin, and (again, from the original Soros meeting) Orin Kramer.

Early March, 2007: There were two fundraisers by Wolf and one by Edgar Bronfman, Jr.

Mid-March, 2007: George Soros began a staged dance with Obama. Writing in the New York Review of Books, Soros denounced the rightist Israeli lobby, AIPAC.

March 21, 2007: Continuing the dance, the Obama campaign rebutted Soros (as in, "Obama distances himself from Soros"), and denounced the Hamas movement.

April 9, 2007: An Obama fundraising party for the New York elite was held at the home of financier Steven Gluckstern, the former chairman of George Soros' Democracy Alliance. A photograph of the event, published (April 16, 2007) in New York magazine, showed George Soros seated immediately next to the standing, speaking Obama. Soros was enthroned as the only one in the room seated, stationed between host Gluckstern and Obama. Two months earlier Soros's Mr. Gluckstern had been quoted in the New York Observer saying he MIGHT be raising "well over a million dollars" for Obama.

May 18, 2007: George Soros hosted an Obama party at the Greenwich, Connecticut palatial mansion of Paul Tudor Jones, who runs the giant hedge fund Tudor Investment Corporation. They collected $2,300 from each of the approximately 300 attendees, the local newspaper Greenwich Time reported.

VAMMAP - I have to ask. Exactly what did you mean when you said that Pawlenty "dumbed down" state funding? Does this mean reduced?

If localities want better services, doesn't it make sense that the funds should be raised locally? Using state funding to pay for local services basically means that residents of other (read: Hennepin) counties have to pay for services they can't use.

BB

Reasonable analysis, but it seems the story about Cheney asking Pawlenty not to run for Senate is a bit of an exaggeration.

Noam Schieber at TNR.com writes in his profile of Pawlenty, " As the story goes, no less an eminence than Dick Cheney called Pawlenty the morning of his campaign announcement and asked him to step aside. Less well-known is that the call, according to people close to the situation, was engineered by Pawlenty himself--and that there were no plans for an announcement. After the White House privately threw its weight behind Coleman, Pawlenty negotiated the dramatic call as a kind of consolation prize. He reasoned that a personal plea from such a high-profile Republican would demonstrate that Washington took him seriously."

I hope this fib doesn't keep getting propagated and used as an example of Pawlenty being a team-player. As with all politicians, he looks out for himself first.

Oh, and it would be nice if our bridges in Minnesota didn't keep falling or getting shut down due to the insufficient maintenance.

Gov. Pawlenty raised taxes to pay for a new Twins Stadium. According to Mn. Public Radio, each citizen of Hennepin County will pay an extra $2,500 in sales taxes thanks to the Governor. And this will benefit the Twins owner who is a billionaire. Do we want a Tax raising servant of the rich and powerful as VP?

I hope McCain picks someone else.

What a tough choice for those of us in Minnesota ... good riddance, is my first thought. At least he'll be gone from here and we won't have the threat of him hanging around.

But Vice-President? This isn't a guy with any kind of intellectual horsepower. And he can't be trusted with anything he says. The only possible benefit is if he runs with McCain and they get trampled in November, perhaps he'll be out of politics.

As for helping McCain win Minnesota ... don't count on it. This isn't a battle state. Look at the polls. We're back to being blue. Nothing Pawlenty says or does will change that.

McCain doesnt need another Dan Quayle

The basic assumption behind Pawlenty seems to me to be flawed. Picking him because he can carry Minnesota and "do no harm" is fine if you are way ahead in the polls. The problem for McCain is that after a bruising intr-party fight, Obama is comfortably ahead in the polls.

And that this is a year which favors Democrats, any Democrat (who doesn't act like a complete idiot, and Obama had run a masterful campaign and shows no signs of succumbing to a "hail Mary" strategy, ie, making a fatal mistake).

McCain, in my opinion, needs to do something to shake up the election equation. Hillary is a great choice, but a moderate Republican woman would probably do.

Or maybe a conservative Republican woman?? (Would conservative Republicans think that a moderate woman plus McCain is enough better than Obama plus, say Strickland, to keep them in the fold??? I dunno, would love to hear what some conservatives think).

Pawlenty, good guy or not, is not going to give McCain a big boost, and he needs one (think Mondale/Ferraro).

Just as Obama can not pick someone much older who would make him look even tounger, McSame can't pick someone who makes him look even older. Then there are all the real reasons to keep Pawlenty away from the white house.

Pawlenty on the surface looks nice, but like so many things once you get below the surface he is seriously lacking.

His main problem is simple he isn't southern. With Obama bringing out the black vote in the south in record numbers, McCain HAS to shore up the south if he wants to have any chance in November. If the Democrats win VA and/or NC then its game over.

I think it will be really hard for Sen. McCain to pass on Gov. Pawlenty for the VP slot - given everything covered by Chris above -- he is young, the fact that this year MN is going to be a bigger battleground state, the GOP convention being in MN - McCain has to be thinking that T-Paw on the ticket will probably put MN in the red column and possibly make WI a little redder. Besides the GOP have to think that should Sen. McCain win in '08 & get reelected in '12 - Gov. Pawlenty will be the leading candidate for the GOP nomination

I hope tomorrow's "case against" is thorough. Pawlenty brings many negatives to the table. People in DC may not know the full extent of his culpability in the I-35 bridge collapse, as he vetoed funds to repair bridges in Minnesota, ignoring the "structurally deficient" rating of the bridge. This was purely ideological on his part: Pawlenty won't raise taxes (though he's very comfortable with "fees"). The bridge collapse is only one manifestation of the long, slow decline of Minnesota's infrastructure, educational system, and financial standing under this governor.

Secondly, he's an empty suit. Yes, he's a personable guy with a good smile, and he looks younger than he is. That's where the benefits end. No one has ever accused him of acute intelligence.

I do think he would perform well in a debate in a Huckabee-like manner; he's capable of charming people without giving away how ideologically driven and impractical many of his positions are. From a purely political perspective, he's not a bad choice.

However, from a good-of-the-country perspective, this man should not be one (weak) heartbeat away from the presidency. I hope McCain chooses someone who could be a decent president if necessary.

At a local appearance at Bearpath in Eden Prairie MN just last week, Pawlenty told the audience he was not asked and wouldn't say yes if he was. He dumbed down state funding for almost his entire tenure causing increased local prop taxes, no funding for infrastructure and social service programs; in general even Republican aren't happy with his performance. Democrats hate him. He's an opportunity guy; as slick as they come..

matt, Thanx for the link.

Pawlenty is in McCain's doghouse after publicly slamming him over infrastructure funding. This pair is unlikely.

http://www.political-buzz.com/

I live here in Minnesota- take him- he has done nothing for the State of Minnesotat. Even with Pawlenty on the ticket- McCain wont carry Minnesota. Pawlenty did not carry the state for McCain in the primary.

If we assume that the first rule for choosing a VP nominee is "Do no harm" you make it sound as if TP fits.

Boutan, Alan In Missoula, and blert -
pls eml
mark_in_austin@operamail.com

McCain is the best !

I'm a Democrat from Minnesota. Pawlenty is a white-bread choice. He's a nice guy with boyish charm, without any apparent deep convictions. In practice more a country club Republican despite the blue-collar roots. He pledged not to raise taxes and then jacked up every fee he could find, so he is thin on that issue.
I really don't think he will be any help in Minnesota. He barely got reelected in proseprous times running against Hatch who - how can I put this kindly -- well, I can't put it kindly, Hatch defines DFL hack. He's an embarassment. George Bush would have beaten Hatch.
I think McCain at his age has to have a VP with some gravitas. Pawlenty can't spell gravitas. People will not look at him and say "I can see him as President." they will say "I can see him as youth leader at my church or as my insurance agent."
In short, I hope McCain picks him. Only Huckabee would be better - America is pining for a VP who believes in Social Darwinism but not actual Darwinism.