Former MN Gov. Tim Pawlenty announces 2012 bid

Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has announced of the formation of an exploratory committee.

Like most candidate propaganda, it’s comically self-congratulating. Tim Pawlenty has been to almost all of the states! Tim Pawlenty put on a jumpsuit and talked to factory people! Tim Pawlenty plays touch football with small children, and his team probably won, because Tim Pawlenty is strong, and he runs fast on high strong legs! But the really comical part is when a track of uproarious applause begins (1:28) when he announces his exploratory committee. Average  Americans have not only heard of Tim Pawlenty, but they’re so happy he’s running for president!

Also: Allfather Ronald Reagan (1:15) personified all of America, and his contributions to the Union get priority over Lincoln’s, again.

But overall, the ad isn’t as negative as I expected. There are only passing references to “taking our government back,” which is so commonplace it’s only disturbing if you think about it. (“Take it back” from…who? The 69,456,897 people who voted for the current president?)

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Earlier this year, I covered Pawlenty when he went on the radio show of Brian Fischer, a fanatic dominionist who wants “elegant” biblical law enforced in the US, believes Native Americans were punished with conquest, alcoholism and poverty for not converting to Christianity, has called for the barring of Muslims from the US military, and claimed that letting people’s houses burn down is “the Christian thing” to do. I find it astounding and depressing that a candidate for highest office in a nation explicitly founded on Enlightenment principles courts theocratic thugs like Fischer and his listeners for support.

“I have lots of options for the future”

Sharron Angle, the failed 2010 GOP nominee for Harry Reid’s Senate seat, who suggested “second amendment remedies” to Obama’s policies, used air quotes around the word “autism,” mocked the concept of paid maternity leave because ”I’m not gonna have any more babies,”  who told a roomful of Latino students “ look a little more Asian to me”, who once belonged to a third party whose literature referred to gays as “sodomites” and “brazen perverts,”  and who once fled her own press conference without answering any questions, has not ruled out a 2012 presidential run. She’s in Iowa–a traditional testing field for would-be runners–this week, previewing a comically un-self-aware creationist movie.