Pawlenty pauses to pump up GOP faithful

Tim Pawlenty gives a good speech.

And he did so again on the early side of Saturday morning in Rochester to a not-quite-filled convention hall to a half-asleep audience of state Republican Party delegates and officials mostly awakened by the second-term GOP governor’s talk filled with encouragement, hope and optimism.

Introduced as the “shining star” and “saving salvation” of the Republican Party in Minnesota, Pawlenty took the stage, approached the microphone and brandished for the GOP faithful his frequent speech prop, a pen – what Pawlenty calls his veto pen. (I wonder if the pen he raised today is the same pen he actually does sign vetoes with. Is it the same pen I’ve seen him raise in numerous speeches?)

“I’ve brought my friend,” Pawlenty told the crowd, which applauded.

Expressing a hope that the GOP regains the majority in the Legislature, Pawlenty said that “in the meantime, I’ve strapped on the political goalie equipment” in order to stop bad bills. He went on to say that, as folks may have noticed in the newspaper yesterday, he was “proud" to be the single-year record-holder for number of vetoes issued by a Minnesota governor.

But, then, jumping into his hopeful mode, Pawlenty told the delegates and GOP officials, the Republican Party can’t be just “the party that says ‘no.’ … We need to be the party of good ideas. … We have some work to do in that regard.”

Using a tried-and-true GOP approach, Pawlenty urged the party faithful “to go back to the playbook of Ronald Reagan.”

Saying the country is “facing a lot of challenges” and more than a few “bumps in the road,” Pawlenty suggested that the GOP look back to the leadership of Reagan “who was hopeful and optimistic and decent.”

Pawlenty told the crowd that he wanted hope and optimism to be “the tone and tenor of our party.”

The governor invoked his mother, who, he said, used to tell her kids that “gratitude opens the door to more blessings.”

The country may be facing many challenges, he said, but “We are the greatest and most prosperous nation in the history of the world. … Let’s be thankful for what we’ve got.”

Pawlenty then took a few moments to thank and praise Ron Carey, head of the state Republican Party, which Carey obviously appreciated, as on the giant video screen flanking the podium he could be seen apparently wiping away a tear.

The governor then addressed where the party is and where it’s headed. “We are the party of the marketplace … and right now more people choosing the products and services of our competitors.”

Pawlenty challenged the state GOP – and, by extension, Republicans nationally (keep in mind he’s keeping the national scene in mind as an oft-mentioned candidate to become John McCain’s VEEP on the GOP presidential ticket this fall) – to do a better job of getting their core message out to the people – Reagan Democrats, in particular.

“What can we do better? The marketplace is telling us we aren’t doing a good enough job. … We have a higher burden to get our message out.”

Pawlenty invoked his family again, talking about his brothers and sisters, all Reagan Democrats. (He joked how he was the only Republican in his “family of origin.”) Using his siblings as examples of centrist Democrats, Pawlenty said they are exactly the audience Republicans should be targeting.

“We are not doing as good a job of translating our core values to people like my family, and we need to do that.”

Of course, Pawlenty stressed to applause, “No matter what our differences as a party, that’s nothing compared to what will happen if Barack Obama becomes president.”

As rumors swirl around Pawlenty about being on McCain’s VEEP shortlist and the days count down to the national GOP convention, the governor as he closed his relatively brief speech addressed the McCain campaign for president, calling the Arizona senator “my friend.”

Pawlenty repeated a few familiar McCain stories related to his years as a POW in Vietnam and suggested McCain has the best personal story and is the most qualified candidate.

“The best experiences in life are lived. … Don’t listen to the rhetoric – look at the life lived.”

Addressing the concerns many Republicans have about McCain’s conservative credentials, Pawlenty asked the crowd to give the senator a chance.

“As president, [McCain] will win the war on terror, hold the lid on spending and get us a conservative [U.S] Supreme Court – and that’s a pretty good start.”

Pawlenty then thanked the party delegates and officials for their devotion, especially on a beautiful spring morning, and then took off, saying he had to be at a troop deployment in Minneapolis.

Alex Plechash, a delegate from Wayzata and Senate District 33, agreed with Pawlenty that the Republican Party needs to do a better job of reaching out to Reagan Democrats

“I think the governor is right when he says we haven’t done a good job in expressing our message,” Plechash commented on the convention floor. “That’s his challenge to us as a party.”