The other potential flaw is in assuming that name recognition itself is something exogenous from candidate quality. In plain English: the fact that a candidate hasn’t been very successful at getting voters to recognize his name is often a sign that he is an unremarkable candidate.
Mr. Pawlenty has not exactly been invisible. In 2008, he was the governor of the state where Republicans held their convention, and was widely speculated upon as John McCain’s vice presidential nominee — indeed, he was used as something of a decoy, before Mr. McCain picked Ms. Palin. In 2009, he played a key role in the state’s contentious recount between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. In 2010, he’s gotten a ton of face time on national television because of his interest in the Presidential race.
But voters don’t seem much to remember him — or they don’t seem much to care. Meanwhile, several other Republicans have lapped Mr. Pawlenty. Compare, for instance, the amount of Google search traffic that Mr. Pawlenty is generating as compared with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whom almost nobody would have heard of in 2008.
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