Is Tim Pawlenty unpopular?
By Scott September 2, 2009 (Power Line) — Tim Pawlenty is the Republican governor of Minnesota who is completing the second of his two terms. In the midst of a tough recessionary environment, he has been forced by a profligate legislature to balance the state budget by his own hand and to veto reckless tax increases. The actions might have made him unpopular. But have they? The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait argues in a column this morning that Obama’s bait-and-switch liberalism does not account for his sinking poll numbers. Chait writes: Is Obama really sliding because of his liberal policies? If so, then you might expect to see governors doing better–after all, they’re cutting spending. But governors of both parties have seen their approval ratings fall as well. Tim Pawlenty is unpopular. Arnold Schwarzenegger is really unpopular. Chait may be right about Schwarzenegger, but Is Pawlenty unpopular? Eric Ostemeier addressed the question on the Humphrey Institute’s Smart Politics blog
