Bachmann Smokes Pawlenty

By Ron Fournier, National Journal

It was a contentious two-hour session punctuated by several Minnesota-nasty exchanges between Bachmann and Pawlenty. She underscored her skills as a debater, and her limits as a leader.
Pawlenty may be T-Toast.
“It’s an indisputable fact,” Pawlenty said of Bachmann, “that her record is non-existent.” The former Minnesota governor pointed to Bachmann’s relatively light load of accomplishments in Congress and added, “The American people are going to expect more and demand more.”
Bachmann fired back with a fair and mostly accurate assessment of Pawlenty’s moderate positions on the environment and taxes, positions he abandoned in a bid to win the nomination of an increasingly conservative GOP. “That,” she said of Pawlenty’s gubernatorial record, “sounds like Barack Obama to me.”
Still, Bachmann had precious little to say about her own record.
Perhaps because it doesn’t matter; GOP voters are so hungry to defeat Obama that they will set aside such little things. Bachman suggested her credentials as "a fighter" is what qualifies her to be the GOP nominee.
“People are looking for a champion,” she said. “They want someone who is fighting.”
Pawlenty tried to show some fight. But he seemed to be trying too hard, and unlike Bachmann, he doesn’t wear the bully’s role well.