Pawlenty Out, Perry In, Romney Likely OK With That

Romney Counts Remaining Candidates

Obama can breath a bit easier today, given the recent news of former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty dropping out of the race.  Pawlenty failed to reach his own target level of support during the shenanigustic Iowa straw poll this weekend, and the announcement by Texas Governor Rick Perry to enter the race probably did not help the calculus.

This is not good news for Republicans, generally, while it works for Romney specifically. While Pawlenty had no real shot at the presidency given his decided lack of flair, he still represented a sensible wing of the Republican Party, and that sensible group has dropped from three to two, leaving Romney and Huntsman.

This weekend the sensible (and dull) was replaced by the more flamboyant Governor Perry. Perry is not your middle of the road Republican; he duplicates a lot of the qualities that can be found in Michelle Bachmann, but with a touch more experience in getting things done. We imagine that Romney is quite okay with candidates to his right, and the more extreme the better, so long as they don't drift to the middle. You don't want guys like Pawlenty around siphoning off that voter who is unhappy with Obama but still wants a reasonable, mainstream candidate.

To the extent that any candidate is hard core Christian on social issues, and without a substantive record of achievement (Palin, Bachmann), we see a palpable advantage for people like Obama or Romney in running against them.