Andrew Sullivan Predicts Pawlenty As McCain Veep: 'I Think He's Already Made That Decision'

Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan drew praise on this morning's Chris Matthews Show for having called the nomination races for John McCain and Barack Obama early, and for prescient reasons. Matthews gave Sullivan a chance to issue another pronouncement on the 2008 Veepstakes, and the Daily Dish scribe didn't disappoint, not just predicting that Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty would be McCain's pick for vice president, but insisting that the decision to do so had been "already made."

Oh, and then Chris Matthews tells one of the worst puns you've ever heard. And yes, a small piece of you will die when you hear it.

[WATCH.]

MATTHEWS: Welcome back. Andrew, let me tell you something you already know. Some of your predictions are right on the money. More than a year ago, you sat in that chair and predicted Obama. Let's watch.

SULLIVAN (taped): I think most people want to move on. I think that's Obama's fundamental strength. If you look at the polling this week, 72%, wrong track. The highest ever reported. Who is the candidate that most represents change? Obama.

MATTHEWS: Score, Andrew. And then, well before Iowa, when McCain was running fourth, you predicted McCain would be the winner.

SULLIVAN (taped): There will be a moment probably in New Hampshire when John McCain emerges as the John Kerry of this cycle when the Republican party panics with all the people they have and swoop back to the old war horse.

MATTHEWS: There are going to be some horseraces in Washington next week. So Andrew, tell me something again I don't know.

SULLIVAN: I think the vice-presidential picks are both going to be boring and underwhelming. We hope for a big moment, but actually...neither candidate wants to mix their brand up with another strong brand. I think that Pawlenty will probably be McCain's number two - I think he's already made that decision, actually - and I think Obama has yet to pick, but he doesn't want someone that will outshine him.

MATTHEWS: So that ticket is going to be known as good and Pawlenty.

Comments

[HansB]

Sullivan predicts with his feelings. He likes Obama, he likes or used to like McCain, and he finds reasons to justify his choices after the choice has been made.

He also wants Obama to win, so he won't predict McCain choosing a woman - which might attract a substantial number of Clintonistas while also giving oceans of favorable, free press coverage.

My money's on Sarah Palin and I can only hope Obama makes a brilliant choice to offset that.

[nellie]

Good and Plenty. Okay, Well, it makes sense. It helps with Norm Coleman's senatorial race—and he's going to need all the help he can get—and Pawlenty compliments McCain without overwhelming his image in any way. He's young, uncontroversial. I believe it.

[WendellPerrySociety]

Naturally - he would chose some one who would take a blue state from Obama - because he knows Obama is going to take at least one or more of those long held red states from him like (Colorado, Georgia, Virginia, or North Carolina) this may be the only smart move his campaign has made if it turns out to be true.

[kenbomc]

He's not taking our state -even with our governor. I hope McSame thinks that way though. There is no way in hell Minnesota will go red.

[lennix]

its time for a change not for the same old style in washington we got to move forward not backwards

[closetodemfection]

Yawn.

[robXdion]

Obama's pick may be boring, but whoever it is, they'll be from a key region he needs with some experience. Not that he feels he needs any, but to make himself look stronger.

[aznurse]

As soon as I saw his name, I thought of that too. Luckily, I just thought it , I didn't say it on TV.

[riverhouse]

Well, that's a bore.

[soapington]

Well, I can quite understand that John McQuayle doesn't want to be outshone by his running mate, but really... ? This twerp? The fact that McQuayle is the candidate is an indication of just how p*ss-poor the Republican Party is right now, but Pawlenty would be be a sign of complete capitulation.

[RoboA2008]

He should choose Michelle Obama.

[coba]

pawlenty sucks big time and will lose it for mccain which is why i say goooo pawlenty

http://sensico.wordpress.com/2008/06/22/dwc-checklist-4-change-part-4/

[grannysharp]

sorry coba but Mc Cain can loose it all by him self, if Pawlenty helps well good oh! a land slide for the democrat's would be great.

[AdamND]

I hear he's not all that liked in MN after the whole bridge falling down problem. Anyway was there any MN polls done with Pawlenty as VP?

[theone718]

Yes and I heard (which I think is pure bullcrap) that Pawlenty on the ticket gave McCain Wisconsin and Minnesota.

[djg55555]

I'm from Minnesota and actually, he came out of the bridge disaster pretty much unscathed. His lieutenant governor took most of the blame, since she (Carol Molnau) was also the head of MNDOT at the same time. She lost that position afterward and is now only the lieutenant governor. She also made some other bad decisions about some other road projects in Minnesota. For example, she fired a contractor who was building a bridge project halfway through the project because there were some errors in the engineering which required some retrofitting of some supports when some cracking was discovered and the project went over budget. She reopened the bidding for the remainer of the project. But then she had to pay the fired contractor 5 million dollars because of the lost contract. Then they ended up rewarding the contract to the same contractor for much more than they had originally agreed upon. The project has been going on now since 2002. It was supposed to be done at the end of 2007, but because of her mismanagement, it will now take until 2010 or 2011.

[djg55555]

As for Pawlenty, he's incredibly partisan and a lot like Bush. He wants to put everything on credit rather than pay for things with today's dollars or even consider raising taxes. Like Andrew Sullivan says above, he is boring and underwheming. He's not especially intelligent and not a very good governor. He makes everything a Republican/Democrat issue. For example, the legislature recently passed a rise in the gas tax. He vetoed it, but it was overriden by the legislature. He got mad and made a speech and said something like " This is a typical DFL bill with a typical DFL result." Never mind that it was a bi-partisan bill with many members of his own party supporting it. That's how they managed to override his veto. Never mind that he has been in the governors office since 2002 and has done nothing to find new revenue streams like he promised he would. He's kind of a do-nothing governor.