Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty: During his presidential campaign, Tim Pawlenty was fond of regaling voters with stories of growing up in the downscale meatpacking areas near St. Paul, Minn.
In one exemplary interview with Politics Daily last year, he rather dramatically underscored his blue-collar roots by invoking phrases like “fingernails dirty,” “grit and stuff of real life,” “truck driver,” “lunch-bucket,” “Gordie Howe,” “puked,” “pro-beer,” “scrapper,” “John Mellencamp” and “Springsteen.”
Those are all phrases that glide off Pawlenty’s tongue much more easily than they do Romney’s (can you imagine Romney ever claiming he was “pro-beer”?), and as such, Pawlenty could form an effective bridge between blue-collar, working-class voters and Romney.
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