Tim Pawlenty at “Leadership for Iowa”

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was the featured speaker at the “Leadership for Iowa” event hosted by the Republican Party of Iowa.  You can watch his speech here or below:

I was very impressed by Governor Pawlenty’s ability to connect with his audience.  I appreciated his sense of humor, and he promoted conservative values in a straight forward way.  He reminded us that we have 37 gubernatorial races next year.  That America sees the need for a comeback and asked, “are we fired up and ready to fight back?”  Some quotes that I particularly liked:

• “Aren’t you embarrassed when the Secretary of State goes to China on bended knee to ask them to buy our debt?”
• “Aren’t you embarrassed that the President of France lectures us about appeasement?”
• “The United States of America is not a beggar nation.”
• My personal favorite of the night – “The only thing growing faster than the national debt is Chris Matthews’ man crush on Barack Obama.”

He then talked about his record in Minnesota which one year he set the record for the most vetoes in a year as he was trying to cut spending.  It is pretty evident he is positioning himself for a 2012 run, and I think he would make an interesting candidate.

Some other Pawlenty coverage:

• Over at The Iowa Independent – Jason Hancock mentions that Pawlenty took heat for endorsing Doug Hoffman in NY 23.  He didn’t receive heat from anyone who matters Jason.
• Dave Price has a good summary and a behind the scenes video.  He also highlights him botching Bill Northey’s (Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture) and Dave Vaudt’s (Iowa State Auditor) names.  He also has some other links.
• Craig Robinson over at The Iowa Republican liveblogged his speech.