Romney to pick an UnPalin for Veep

Asked in a Colorado town hall whether he would pick his running mate before the GOP convention, Romney responded:

I can’t give you the timeline for that..that is a decision that we’ll make down the road. Nor can I give you the individual. I can tell you that the person I choose you will look at and say, ‘Well, that’s a person who could be president, if that were necessary, and that, for me, is the most important single criteria.”

Hmm. I guess that rules out all the clowns he ran against for the nomination, with the possible exception of the first dropout, Tim Pawlenty. Sounds like an attempt, too, to undo the Palinization of the GOP.  Too bad he had to Palinize himself to get the nomination -- demonizing a clone of his own healthcare creation, embracing insane tax and spending cuts, criminalizing abortion -- and lying nonstop about his opponent.

Hillary Rodham Pawlenty

Jonathan Chait has been arguing that Michele Bachmann is positioned something like Obama in 2007: she does best among those voters "most attuned to the campaign."

If Bachmann is Obama, Tim Pawlenty seems to be lining up for the role of Hillary Clinton:

Tim Pawlenty, President of the United States of Gurgaon

Tim Pawlenty wants to privatize as many federal government functions as possible:

There’s some obvious targets. We can start by applying what I call “The Google Test.” 

If you can find a good or service on the Internet.     Then the federal government probably doesn’t need to be doing it. 

Perhaps, then, we should look to India for inspiration. Today, the Times' Jim Yardley portrays a country and city where economic dynamism wrestles with government dysfunction:

In Gurgaon and elsewhere in India, the answer is that growth usually occurs despite the government rather than because of it....

In Gurgaon, economic growth is often the product of a private sector improvising to overcome the inadequacies of the government.

To compensate for electricity blackouts, Gurgaon’s companies and real estate developers operate massive diesel generators capable of powering small towns. No water? Drill private borewells. No public transportation? Companies employ hundreds of private buses and taxis. Worried about crime? Gurgaon has almost four times as many private security guards as police officers.