Pawlenty Drops Out  August 15, 2011 - 4:03 AM  How can this
happen? How can a successful governor hire a group of really
smart people, spend more than a year, and who-knows-how-many
millions of dollars, meeting with potential and actual
supporters, and elite members of the media in places like New
York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., only to come to a
grinding halt in a place called Ames, Iowa?  The threshold
problem with the presidential campaign of Gov. Tim Pawlenty was:
From the very, well, threshold there was no clear theory for the
campaign. It never occurred to me that Pawlenty was going to be
able to "nice" his way into the Oval Office.  Most people along
the trail liked him. What's not to like? Many people in and
around politics confuse a candidate's likability with his or her
electability.  When someone mentions that so-and-so is much more
likable than someone else I always respond with the same two
words: Richard Nixon. Nobody liked Nixon. Not even, maybe, his
wife. Yet, he won twice. Three