Tim Pawlenty

Fomer Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is now off the presidential campaign trail, following a lackluster showing in last weekend's Ames straw poll. But if he wants to hit the road again, he can fall back on the fruitful paid speaking circuit. Pawlenty made more than $250,000 from speaking engagements this year, according to his personal financial disclosure report released today by the Federal Election Commission. He also made $342,000 in royalty payments for his book, "Courage to Stand," which was published last January.

A year ago, soon after the Tunisian uprising, I demonstrated my powers of prediction in a column about the democracy movement in the Arab world. The revolution in Tunisia, I wrote, "arose from local circumstances that don't foretell what will happen anywhere else. " Three weeks later, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak fell, and the Arab Spring was in full bloom. This brings me to the subject of today's column: A confession of my year's errors and omissions (along with a mention of one or two things I got right)

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty plans to formally announce his Republican candidacy for president in Iowa on Monday, a campaign aide confirmed Friday. The announcement will come during a town hall meeting in the lead-off caucus state. His wife will introduce him at the event at the State of Iowa Historical Building. In the eyes of the Federal Election Commission, Pawlenty is already a full-fledged candidate. But he has maintained he is still in an exploratory phase, waiting until the pace of the campaign picked up before making a showier splash.

And the winner is ... Mitt Romney! Not in Iowa's much-watched caucuses, which, of course, don't take place until Jan. 3. Instead, Romney was the victor in a little-noticed but no less hotly contested bid for the affections of one 69-year-old Cedar Rapids housewife: a quilter, grandma, baker of knockout chocolate chip cookies and lover of autobiographies and the Grand Old Party. Joni Scotter, the subject of a January profile, is one of just 20 or so Iowa Republican uber-volunteers -- loyalists valued not just for their commitment to a candidate but for the statewide network of friends and followers they can harness.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is officially declaring his presidential candidacy on Monday. But he offered a sneak peak to supporters in a YouTube video posted Sunday, in which he pledges to speak candidly about the nation’s challenges. “I could promise that we can eliminate a $14-trillion debt, create jobs for 10 million people, restructure Social Security and healthcare all without making any tough decisions. Or, I could try something different: I could just tell you the truth,” a stern Pawlenty says.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry offered words of support for Tim Pawlenty during his visit to a family festival in New Hampshire Sunday, stating that he hoped to win Pawlenty's endorsement in his presidential bid and calling the former Minnesota governor a great friend. Perry, who served with Pawlenty on the executive council of the Republican Governors Assn. working to elect more Republican governors across the country, said they had traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan together and "spent a lot of quality personal time.

After watching the ups and downs of the Republican presidential campaign from the sidelines since mid-August, Tim Pawlenty voiced second thoughts Monday about his decision to pull out of the race after a third place showing at the Ames straw poll. Speaking at the unveiling of his official portrait commemorating his time as governor of Minnesota, Pawlenty said it was “the wrong call” to invest so heavily in the Iowa straw poll, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Pawlenty placed far behind Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Texas Rep. Ron Paul in the Ames contest.

Just weeks after abandoning his campaign for president, Tim Pawlenty is injecting himself back in the race with an endorsement of Mitt Romney. The expression of support for his former foe is a quick turnabout for the former Minnesota governor, who earlier this summer lampooned Romney over his healthcare reform plan, which Pawlenty called "Obamneycare. " It also comes as the GOP race for president has entered a newly competitive phase between Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, and Rick Perry, the current governor of Texas.

Eager to shed the perception that he's too "Minnesota nice" to do battle with his would-be competitors, Republican former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty attacked President Obama as "chicken" on Monday for a State of the Union address he said ducked the nation's fiscal challenges. Pawlenty's comments during a Fox News Channel interview Monday morning mark the latest escalation of his profile-building campaign. "Most Americans ? understand we've got a problem," he said during a conversation about the president's speech last week and looming budget challenges.

With a possible make-or-break moment days away, Tim Pawlenty on Wednesday evening continued to emphasize his executive experience, implicitly blasting both President Obama and archrival Michele Bachmann in the process. “I've actually done this stuff,” Pawlenty told a crowd of about 50 in a community center near the Iowa State University campus. “There's a big difference between people giving a speech and people getting it done.” Pawlenty has spent this month criss-crossing Iowa in advance of the Straw Poll here Saturday, the next “benchmark in the journey” as he called it. He boasted that he's traveled “1,000 miles last week” and “1,000 miles this week.” And indeed, his voice showed it, sounding strained and weary.

Herman Cain's unlikely and ill-fated presidential campaign proved that one rule is immutable even in this rambunctious campaign year: Political outsiders may be an attractive alternative to career politicians, but all the fresh approaches and folksy charm in the world can't make up for inexperience and untenable baggage. Ending days of intense speculation, the Republican presidential candidate announced he would suspend his campaign, a legal maneuver that allows him to request federal matching funds.

Looking back on the events of 2011, who do you think has more regrets for his bad decisions, Hosni Mubarak or former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty? I guess you have to give it to Mubarak. After all, the guy gave up a cushy gig ruling Egypt just so he could be (justifiably) prosecuted from a sick bed while his cronies retained power. All Pawlenty did was blow his entirely plausible shot at the presidency. But one thing is clear: Both men misread their moments. Let's hop into the way-back machine.

The Mitt Romney bandwagon is getting crowded in New Hampshire, and a top Republican here says it's a credit to the GOP front-runner's deliberate approach in the state. Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu became the latest boldfaced name to endorse Romney, an announcement that came on the front page of the Sunday Union Leader. Sununu will join Romney on Monday when he files his paperwork with the secretary of state's office to become an official candidate in the New Hampshire primary.

After watching the ups and downs of the Republican presidential campaign from the sidelines since mid-August, Tim Pawlenty voiced second thoughts Monday about his decision to pull out of the race after a third place showing at the Ames straw poll. Speaking at the unveiling of his official portrait commemorating his time as governor of Minnesota, Pawlenty said it was “the wrong call” to invest so heavily in the Iowa straw poll, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Pawlenty placed far behind Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Texas Rep. Ron Paul in the Ames contest.

Thaddeus McCotter is abandoning his campaign for the GOP's presidential nomination in 2012 and endorsing Mitt Romney, he told the Detroit News on Thursday. What's that? You've never heard of Thaddeus McCotter? Well, that's the main reason he's now a former candidate. The wonky, guitar-playing Michigan congressman barely, if ever, registered in national polling after formally becoming a candidate in July. He finished 10th with 35 votes at the Iowa Republican Straw Poll in August, just 4,788 votes behind fellow member of Congress Michele Bachmann.

Is it too late for Mitt Romney to ask Tim Pawlenty to endorse Rick Perry instead? On Monday, the former Minnesota governor and, until the Iowa straw poll, presidential contender endorsed Romney's presidential bid. As best I can tell, reaction from rank-and-file Republicans does not suggest that a resulting tectonic shift in the polls toward Romney is imminent. According to legend, Josef Stalin asked, "How many divisions does the pope have?" Upon hearing the Pawlenty news, no doubt Perry said something similar, albeit with a Texan flavor.

After finishing a distant third place in the crucial Ames Straw Poll, Tim Pawlenty withdrew from the presidential race Sunday, telling supporters and friends that after much prayer with his wife, he did not see a way forward. Pawlenty, who announced his decision to donors and supporters on a conference call Sunday morning, had centered his campaign on his neighboring state of Iowa, hoping that his credentials as a social and fiscal conservative would give him broad appeal to first-in-the-nation caucus-goers.

Tim Pawlenty said in an interview this week that the science of global warming remains unclear and that Earth's shifting climate is more likely due to natural causes. The interview with the Miami Herald marked the most recent example of Pawlenty's evolution on the issue. Once an advocate of cap-and-trade policies to reduce carbon admissions, the former Minnesota governor has since recanted his support for such proposals. As the GOP presidential candidate told the Herald's Marc Caputo:, “Like most of the major candidates on the Republican side to varying degrees, everybody studied it, looked at it. We did the same.

Just weeks after abandoning his campaign for president, Tim Pawlenty is injecting himself back in the race with an endorsement of Mitt Romney. The expression of support for his former foe is a quick turnabout for the former Minnesota governor, who earlier this summer lampooned Romney over his healthcare reform plan, which Pawlenty called "Obamneycare. " It also comes as the GOP race for president has entered a newly competitive phase between Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, and Rick Perry, the current governor of Texas.

Say what you will about the Iowa straw poll — and we could say plenty, including that it's the political equivalent of Groundhog Day, that its results don't predict outcomes in the state's winter caucus because its participants are an unrepresentative sample of voters, and that it's a cynical way for Iowa's Republican Party to raise money — but you can't say it's insignificant. Just ask Tim Pawlenty. The former governor of Minnesota dropped out of the GOP nomination race Sunday after a disappointing third-place finish in Ames, behind Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Texas Rep. Ron Paul.