Imagine you were once running for 2012 presidential nomination, dropped out, and then watched Rick Perry crash and burn and Herman Cain — think of it! — become a top tier candidate.
You might have some regrets. You also would be Tim Pawlenty.
From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
The governor admitted to some second-guessing about what might have been, saying his calculation in quitting the race was simple: “We were out of money.” He said he found out after he quit that the campaign was actually in debt.
The day after a poor third-place showing in an August Ames Iowa Republican straw poll, Pawlenty ended his run so quickly that many of his key confidantes had little chance to weigh in. But since he dropped out, Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who won the Ames straw poll, has seen her polling numbers tank and Texas Gov. Rick Perry has surged and fallen back.
Pawlenty said that had he known what the race would become, he would have saved some cash to carry on. Instead, the campaign spent all it had and more in Iowa. “That’s a decision we made and it was the wrong call,” he said.
This is a little different from what Pawlenty said immediately after his decision to quit the race. Back on Sept. 7, Pawlenty told Stephen Colbert it was the nature of the electorate — hungry for a TV-friendly face — that led to his demise:
It’s taking on more and more of a reality TV component, these races. You’ve got to have not just money but an entertainment component, too. And so I brought forward a record of serious policy approaches, I thought, to the campaign, and at least in that moment in time the electorate is looking for something else.
Now it seems Pawlenty thinks he could have ridden out the Star Search portion of the primary and stuck around longer than his Ames straw poll performance suggested. Instead, he’s now co-chair of Mitt Romney’s campaign.
Ah, well. Hindsight is 20-20 as they say.
