After rolling out his campaign infrastructure with an elaborate video and a gaffe or two, Tim Pawlenty is going negative, mildly, and with polls showing almost anyone but Pawlenty is a viable Republican candidate, it may not be a terrible idea. Pawlenty ended the week attacking President Obama for his European trip on Twitter and even turning on potential candidate Sarah Palin.

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Following up on the cattiest tweet in the Presidential campaign so far (“sorry to interrupt the European pub crawl, but what was your Medicare plan?”), Pawlenty visited CNN’s American Morning to elaborate on his campaign issues and react to his current poll numbers. He appeared happy that, despite the fact that “half the nation’s Republicans don’t know who I am,” he was still a viable candidate in the running, as early polls are “name ID more than anything.” If the polls were reliable, he joked, “Rudy Giuliani and Howard Dean would be presidents.”

With that in mind, asked if Palin’s weekend bus tour was worrisome to him,

he seemed militantly unfazed: “This country isn’t going to be about rallies or you know bus tours or anything else,” Pawlenty said. “This is going to be about a country that is sinking in debt and deficit. We want to have a leader who has actually tackled those issues and doesn’t just talk about it.” He also noted that, while the current “exploratory” phases of other campaigns that may pop up are necessary, “soon we have to have a debate on the issues.”

As for the Democrats, Pawlenty followed up on his online red meat, sort of indirectly calling President Obama a “doofus”:

“Any doofus can go to Washington and maintain the status quo and that’s what we’ve got in the White House and in Congress in terms of their attitude about their willingness to tackle these issues,” Pawlenty said. “If we’re not going to have leaders who are going to say that and do it and tell the American people, look them in the eye … then we’re all wasting our time.”

The full interview may not be particularly heated but from the perspective of campaign strategists and political wonks, his performance here is rather fascinating. Pawlenty enters the race with a serious branding problem. Reputation and gubernatorial accomplishments aside, his most positive reception from primary voters has been when he has played his

card as a “generic” candidate– which does wonders for likability in an election climate like this but deliberately undermines his name recognition, hence the 5% average poll numbers. Now he is flirting with the most dangerous double-edged sword in politics: going negative.

Negative advertising has been proven repeatedly successful throughout the past several decades of electioneering, from Lyndon Johnson‘s “Daisy” Ad to the John Kerry “Windsurfing” spot. But despite many public officials winning their offices through such campaigning, polls repeatedly show that voters can tire of it– especially recently, and especially from Republicans. What’s more, Pawlenty seems to have little else in his favor that distinguishes him in the current field, which means that if voters do sour of his negative turn, they’ll have a hard time finding a silver lining. Then again, while attacking President Obama on his record is par for the course for every candidate, he is the first to be vocally, combatively apathetic about Palin, who has up to now mostly cruised at sacred cow status among many in the right.

Pawlenty is at his best when he isn’t taking himself too seriously, and indirectly calling the President a “doofus” certainly isn’t the act of an immaculate public servant. Watch the full American Morning interview via CNN below:
Tags: American Morning, Barack Obama, CNN, election, Minnesota, Republicans, Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty, Twitter