Reply #23: This is a lot more honest than Dubya's "compassionate conservative" shtick. [View All]

Tim Pawlenty can now run as the "mean-spirited moderate" in the race. I mean, he can, but he won't. Instead he's going to be this year's Mitt Romney, cravenly rebranding himself as a "true values" conservative. Nevermind how that implicitly conveys the message that either he's a liar now or that the whole time he governed as a moderate he was just putting on an act.

It won't bother the Republican voters all that much--if you're going to be a Republican these days you pretty much have to develop the habit of forgetting history anyway. They're such a bunch of willing suckers--they fell for Bush's "just folks" routine, then they fell for Mitt Romney's crocodile smile, and now they're going to swallow Pawlenty's superficial label swapping with no questions asked. I can understand someone being a conservative and voting for a Mike Huckabee or a John McCain. I disagree with them, but they at least have a track record of being who they say they are. You gotta be a real rube if you fall for that Romney/Pawlenty 13th hour conversion bullshit.