¿Puede un buen chico ganar?

Es la pregunta que plantea el Washington Post esta mañana en un pequeño perfil del Gobernador Pawlenty escrito en términos bastante positivos.

(...) In this era of outrage-fueled politics, can a nice guy finish first?

Even his adversaries say they can't help but like former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, who left office on Jan. 1 and is on a book tour, his latest step toward a campaign for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.

"A good, decent person - all of those things," said Democrat Roger Moe, who often squared off against Pawlenty back when they were both leaders in the Minnesota Legislature and who unsuccessfully ran against him for governor in 2002.

But there is one thing that gets a rise out of Pawlenty, and that is to suggest that he lacks a certain . . . pizzazz.

"Compared to who?" Pawlenty retorted in an interview. "I'll concede that Sarah Palin is in a league of her own and a force of nature. As to most of the rest in the field? If you get to know me, I don't think that's an accurate rap. I mean, you think about all the other people running. With the possible exception of Mike Huckabee, and Palin, there aren't exactly a bunch of Lady Gagas."

(...) "The successful conservative governor of one of the most liberal states in the union - as if Ronald Reagan had been elected in Sweden," columnist Michael Gerson raved on The Washington Post op-ed page last year.

(...) "We never had a conservative governor in Minnesota. We had Republicans," said former congressman Vin Weber, who is co-chairman of Pawlenty's political action committee, which also functions as his embryonic presidential campaign. "Pawlenty was the first conservative governor in my lifetime."

(...) "On the Republican side, there's going to be six or eight or 10 people standing on the stage in a year and a half saying about the same thing. . . . I don't think the question is going to be, are there huge differences in policy details between me or other potential candidates?

"The question is going to be, does that person's life story and record demonstrate the kind of fortitude it's going to take to actually get this done - not as a matter of giving a fluffy speech or offering some failed amendment or taking some symbolic act, but actually getting it done?"

(...) Can bland be beautiful?

"After what we've been through," Pawlenty said, "I don't think the country's going to be putting the highest value on who's got the biggest entertainment act." (...)