Pawlenty For President? Political Cartoon of the Day

"I'm a strong supporter of Tim, yea" Coleman said when asked whether he supports a 2012 Pawlenty run. "If that's what he chooses to do."

He later added, "I think he'd make a great president."

Walking out of a Republican Jewish Coalition luncheon this afternoon, former Senator Norm Coleman strongly suggested that he's in Tim Pawlenty's camp if the governor chooses to run for president in 2012.

Coleman's political ambitions have sometimes intersected with Pawlenty's over the years, notably in 2001 when both men intended to run for Senate and the White House asked Pawlenty to bow out.

"So I'm spending as much [time in Washington] as a Senator," Coleman said. "Three, four days a week here and weekends back home."

The former senator made the remarks outside of an RJC luncheon at the St. Regis Hotel where Pawlenty had just delivered a closed-press speech.

Coleman, who became a consultant at the RJC this winter, said he is now on the group's board of directors. He noted that he is also developing his latest endeavor, a "Center-Right" Policy Institute.

Asked "for whom would you vote" in a 2012 presidential primary, just four percent picked Pawlenty. He was bested not only by Mitt Romney (24%), Sarah Palin (18%), Mike Huckabee (29%) and Newt Gingrich (14%) but also by "some other candidate" (6%) and "not sure (7%).

It gets worse.

Those surveyed would also asked to pick the candidate they'd "least like to see win the Republican nomination in 2012." Pawlenty beat all the others on that question and was the least preferred choice of 28%. Palin came in second with 21% followed by Gingrich at 20%, Romney tied with "not sure" at 9%, Huckabee at 8% and "some other candidate" took the bottom spot 5%.

The Republicans were very hopeful that Barack Obama would be a one-term president. Eighty-one percent of voters in the poll said it was somewhat or very likely that a Republican candidate would beat him in 2012.

Without Thoughts of Elections, Obama is Star At All Star Game

The president was relieved he got the chance to warm up for this first pitch, something that wasn't the case when he was a senator and had the same honor during the 2005 American League Championship Series.

Obama's time in the booth was filled with light banter about his ceremonial first pitch, his choice of wardrobe and his thoughts on the state of the game.

President Barack Obama is used to doing interviews on national TV, but the topics usually range from the economic crisis to the war in Iraq. On Tuesday night, he got a brief respite from the normal line of questioning when he joined Joe Buck and Tim McCarver in the FOX broadcast booth during the bottom of the second inning of the All-Star Game.

"When you're a senator, they show you no respect, so they just hand you the ball," Obama told Buck and McCarver. "You don't get a chance to warm up. Now here, I was with Albert Pujols in the batting cage practicing before.

"To go down there, to meet Stan Musial, Bob Gibson and those guys, it's such a reminder of what's great about this country. You can't beat it and it's a real treat."

The president had made no qualms about where his loyalties on the field are and Buck gave him credit for not "playing it down the middle" by wearing non-team-specific garb.

"Everyone knows I'm a White Sox fan and my wife thinks I look cute in this jacket," Obama quipped. "Between those two things, why not?"

The president showed a pretty good grasp of the game beyond the South Side of Chicago, discussing how the overall season was shaping up with the FOX broadcasting duo.

"I tell you what, though, what's been interesting about baseball this year, other than the Dodgers, who have been playing great baseball," Obama said. "There's a lot of parity, which I think is terrific, because it means everybody around the country has a little bit of hope for the team."

Obama has devleoped a bit of a reputation for his prowess as a sports prognosticator. Buck pointed out that he's 2-for-2, referring to Obama correctly picking the Steelers to win the Super Bowl in February and the University of North Carolina to win the NCAA men's basketball title in April. He couldn't entice the president, however, to make a call on the 2009 Major League Baseball season.

"It's a little early for that," Obama said. "You know, I tend to try to get a little more information."

In fact, the president wanted to take some credit for his favorite team's good fortunes back in that 2005 season. After his first pitch, he pointed out, Chicago could do no wrong en route to winning the World Series.

"It was just wonderful," Obama said. "I was just talking to Jerry Reinsdorf, the White Sox owner, about this. After I threw out my pitch, they won eight straight after losing the first game. Any of these teams need a lefty?"

Welcome to the 2012 Presidential Election 3 Years EARLY!!!

We are going to go ahead and get a start on the 2012 United States Presidential Election. Will Obama have another go around, will the Republicans find a unified voice in Tim Pawlenty, will Palin take another stab at the National Stage? We will find all this out and more soon enough. While we find this out we will also use a nice comedic touch and follow the folleys of both side as Elephants and Asses run for President. Today we may pick on the Republicans and Next week maybe we just follow Palin stumbling through Alaska but be sure our ObamaVision is on and we will be ready to pounce on Biden anytime he opens his mouth.