“I don’t know about you but I’m tired of hearing these teleprompter speeches and no results!” he said. “You know his big fancy speeches from four years ago; those speeches, those words don’t put gas in our cars do they? And his teleprompter speeches don’t pay the mortgage do they?”…

Numerous vice presidential prospects, including Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio and Gov. Bobby Jindalof Louisiana, are stumping for Romney over the coming days. Pawlenty told reporters after his Raleigh appearance that he doesn’t see this weekend as an audition for the job.

“I’ve been out doing this sort of thing since last fall and I get a call once in a while from the campaign saying, ‘hey, do you have any free time next week to go be a surrogate?’ ” he said. “This is consistent with that pattern so it’s really no different than what I’ve been doing for the campaign since last fall.”