Larry O'Donnell has named Tim Pawlenty as the only "plausible" Republican candidate for president in 2012. Take it for what it's worth. And consider that O'Donnell was almost surely seeking to sow dissension in Republican ranks.
Caveats carefully in place, consider the reasons O'Donnell dinged all the other possible nominees.
View video after the jump.
O'Donnell was riffing off the list of candidates that George Will had anointed as acceptable possibilities in his recent column. Will apparently rejects Palin, Newt and Huckabee out of hand. O'Donnell further pared Will's list down for the following reasons:
- Mitch Daniels: has refused to absolutely rule out a tax increase.
- Mitt Romney: RomneyCare.
- Haley Barbour: former lobbyist.
Although not on Will's list, O'Donnell also ruled out former Utah governor Jon Huntsman for the sin of having served in the Obama admin as ambassador to China.
O'Donnell thus deemed Pawlenty as the "realistic front-runner simply because he has no obviously prohibitive negatives that would doom his candidacy with Republican primary voters . . . And so the list of plausible Republican candidates comes down to just one name. You've heard it here before: Tim Pawlenty."
