Tim Pawlenty spoke to a group of "400 hardcore Republican activists" (apparently the largest crowd in the 12-year history of the Northeast Hamilton County Republican Club's annual pancake breakfast) in Cincinnati on Saturday morning and, perhaps, offered a preview of at his presidential sales pitch.
It is a simple message - that he is one of the few Republicans who has a track record of winning the votes of Democrats and independents.
"I ran as a conservative and won in one of the deepest blue states in the country,'' said the 50-year-old Pawlenty, who left office earlier this month after two terms as Minnesota's governor. [...]
"Even Ronald Reagan couldn't win Minnesota,'' said Pawlenty, referring to Reagan's landslide wins in 1980 and 1984. "That's how hard it is for a Republican to win in Minnesota."
It is a message coupled with a personal story - the son of a milk truck driver who grew up in a union, Democratic family in a blue-collar neighborhood of St. Paul - that Pawlenty hopes will propel him into the front ranks of GOP presidential contenders.