Just a few months ago, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty was seen as a top tier candidate for the presidency, the chief challenger to frontrunner Mitt Romney. Today, he’s gone. Where did he go wrong?
Some are questioning his decision to put so much into Iowa, but I thought his decision made sense at the time. It was clear Romney was the frontrunner in New Hampshire, so if Pawlenty was going to supplant him, he’d need the momentum coming out of Iowa. It’s hard to see how if he had lost Iowa and New Hampshire that he’d be able to win over South Carolina. At first, Iowa, a neighboring state, seemed the best fit for him among the early states, given his working class background, ties to the evangelical community and the lack of a strong competitor. Once Bachmann entered the race – which wasn’t assumed at the time he was starting his campaign — this strategy became a lot tougher to execute. But by that point, it would have looked really weak had he backed down from the Bachmann challenge and started shifting resources into New Hampshire.
