On the same day Tim Pawlenty made his presidential candidacy official, Mitch Daniels said he was out of the race. Daniels was polling right next to Pawlenty – low-single digits nationally, and in New Hampshire. Daniels’s retreat engendered much wailing and gnashing of teeth, while Pawlenty’s official announcement was greeted by a collective shrug. As they gazed at the door, waiting for Chris Christie to waltz in, the wailing, teeth-gnashing Republican Party faithful gave themselves a halfhearted pep talk. That reaction, as much as anything else, should sum up the prospects of the closest thing Mitt Romney has to a serious challenger from within the traditional (i.e. non-Palin) wing of the GOP.
In sizing up Pawlenty’s presidential ambitions, Slate published not one, but two, separate pieces addressing the former Minnesota governor’s personality deficit. The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib makes the case that Pawlenty is Scott Walker with experience, that his perceived sins on cap-and-trade are less of a liability than Romney’s perceived sins on health care, and while he’s not loved by all the factions of the GOP, he’s potentially acceptable to all of them. He’s religious enough and fiscally conservative enough, he name-checks Sam’s Club, and even though he couldn’t get ‘em cranking at last month’s Tax Day rally on the Common, at least he showed up, which should count for something, right?
Both the Journal and the New York Times play up Pawlenty’s anti-ethanol speech in Iowa yesterday, although it appears he can sound tough on corn because Evangelical orthodoxy trumps everything else in that state’s Republican caucuses. (Rick Santorum isn’t staffing up in Iowa because he’s going to kill it with a wicked sizzling speech on farm policy, and Romney is skipping the state altogether because, well, you know.)
But one safe and perfectly acceptable speech does not take the shine of inevitability off the Romney campaign. Here’s what The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder says about the former Minnesota governor: “Pawlenty, a plurality governor in a blue state, has no real innovative ideas to his name, was less popular when he left office, and seems to be betting on a strategy of allowing anyone who might beat him to collapse from their own weight. Candidates don’t tend to win that way. Look at Lamar Alexander and his presidential bids, also premised on likability, competence. Pawlenty will be forced to focus attention on social issues to prevent Bachmann from taking his votes in Iowa and South Carolina. That’ll make it tough to pull back to the center in the general election.”
And then there’s this, from former Jeb Bush staffer Mike Hanna: “The current field is so weak. It leaves a lot to be desired. I give Pawlenty credit for being out there and steadfastly campaigning, but I don’t get excited about him. You feel like you’d be settling, and I don’t know how he overcomes that.”
–PAUL MCMORROW
BEACON HILL
Software Sal: The one-time head of the state technology office testified yesterday that the state did not need the type of software then-Speaker Sal DiMasi was so enamored of in 2006.
Sen. John Keenan of Quincy has filed a budget amendment that would require health insurers to reimburse hospitals for extended emergency room stays for patients with mental health issues who can’t find a psychiatric bed.
State Auditor Suzanne Bump finds that courts did not collect the probation fees that they should have, resulting in a $1.2 million loss to the court system.
A state program helped restore a blighted Revere house, the Item reports.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Two Lawrence city councilors call on Patrick Blanchette, the city’s economic development director, to resign. Others say he needs to apologize to police after an incident Friday outside a nightclub. Blanchette says the police are twisting his words, but the Eagle-Tribune says his story isn’t believable.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
US Sen. Scott Brown, who seemed to be for Paul Ryan’s Medicare remake before he was against it, declares that he’ll vote no on the plan.
ELECTION 2012
Democratic officials try drafting Elizabeth Warren to run against Brown.
What about me? Vice President Joe Biden thinks out loud about stepping up to the plate for… 2016.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
The Globe reports on the state’s surging computer chip manufacturing sector.
EDUCATION
The fee hike being eyed by University of Massachusetts trustees could cost students on the Dartmouth campus an additional $800 a year, according to the New Bedford Standard Times. Globe columnist Derrick Jackson pegs the anticipated fee hike as the latest example of the state’s shabby treatment of its public higher ed system.
Cornel West is an undistinguished professor of blowhardia, says a Globe editorial.
Nahant dips into its reserve fund to cover special education expenses incurred by its schools, the Item reports.
Proposals to use student performance on standardized tests to measure the effectiveness of teachers has many teachers worried, WBUR reports in its second installment on what makes a good teacher.
Hamilton-Wenham Schools Superintendent Raleigh Buchanan is leaving, and evaluations of him by School Committee members show why. One described him as more of a figurehead than a chief executive, the Salem News reports.
HEALTH CARE
Advocates are asking a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to rule the exclusion of legal immigrants from the state’s health care plan unconstitutional, the Globe reports.
The Cape Cod Times says that if Gov. Deval Patrick’s health care payment reform bill is too complex to pass as a package, the individual elements that have the best change of passage should be considered.
CHARITY
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports on a study that found men and women differ in causes they support through social media, with women more likely to give to youth-oriented charities such as anti-bullying and childhood obesity while men are more likely to donate to the Tea Party and global warming initiatives.
TRANSPORTATION
More than 15 years after the HOV lane was opened on the Southeast Expressway, just 5 percent of rush hour commuters use the zipper lane and it hasn’t increased carpooling as hoped, according to the Patriot Ledger.
Big Dig tunnel inspections reveal a tunnel system beset by leaks, and the occasional falling piece of fireproofing foam.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
The state’s greenhouse gas reduction plan could also provide a significant boost to the economy, creating up to 48,000 jobs, according to David Cash, undersecretary with the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
Nearly 30 years after a landmark suit forced the cleanup of the former W.R. Grace plant in Woburn, that Superfund site and at least 31 others in Massachusetts remain toxic health risks despite millions spent in cleanup costs, a report by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting finds.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
The trial of paroled murderer Charles “Chucky” Doucette Jr. on assault and battery charges begins today in Peabody, the Salem News reports.
END OF THE WORLD II
Oops: Harold Camping, the man behind the May 21 prediction, now says that he was off by a few months and that the world will really end on October 21.