"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.
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