Tim Pawlenty: Mitt Romney Currently Appears To Be Strongest Candidate To Run Against Obama (VIDEO)

During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty (R) signaled he currently sees former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney as the leading Republican presidential candidate to run against President Barack Obama in 2012.

Pawlenty abandoned his campaign for the White House last month on the heels of coming in third place in the Ames Straw Poll -- a table-setter for next year's Iowa caucuses -- behind Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas).

In assessing the state of the GOP presidential field, Pawlenty said he sees the race "coming down" to Romney and Texas Governor Rick Perry. "The polls are indicating that Mitt Romney runs a little stronger nationally than Rick Perry at this moment," he explained.

During an appearance on "The Colbert Report" on Tuesday night, the former Minnesota governor addressed his decision to drop out of the Republican primary race after the Ames Straw Poll.

"I was out of money," explained Pawlnety. "We came in third place behind Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul, I think that's enough for any one person to endure."

HuffPost's Sam Stein reported last month that Pawlenty's political operation was in debt at the time the former governor left the race.

"We didn't just want to survive, we wanted to win," said Pawlenty, adding that political races today appear to be "taking on more and more of a reality TV show component." He explained, "You gotta have not just money, but you gotta have an entertainment component. I brought forward a record of serious policy approach I thought to the campaign and at least in that moment in time the electorate was looking for something else."

In responding to a question on the "entertainment component," Pawlenty quipped, "I thought about shooting sparks up my butt."

Below, video of Pawlenty's appearance on "The Colbert Report" on Tuesday night.

WATCH:

Comments

[Binea]

10:17 AM on 09/08/2011

Give me a brk. Why Bother voting for any of the Other gop .I want Ron Paul.He's the only REAL person standing there.The rest are all owned and will take their orders from the SAME People who ran BUSH. THEY are FRONT men..that's all they are.You want torture loving war mongering selfish greddy jerks in power again..go ahead and listen to That Idiot Timmy.
Ron Paul or OBAMA ( who isn't a fricken sadistic arshole) even though we will continue another fricken four or more years of war with him.Seems the powers that be are determined to rule the fricken world ,even if it means we become less free and much more poor. Obama wants to draw down in Iraq to 3,000 that's good ,but why not get out Totally.from there AND afganistan and stop messing around in those other countries ?

[FOXYROSE]

07:20 AM on 09/08/2011

Huntsman is the only sane adult in the line-up.

[GeorgeBurnsWasRight]

02:36 AM on 09/08/2011

I'm suddenly in favor of replacing Michael Steele with Pawlenty for MSNBC commentator. It would certainly make for more interesting interviews.

[rico 355]

12:47 AM on 09/08/2011

please the only person sane enough to run against obama is huntsman

[softcement]

12:43 AM on 09/08/2011

Why would the advice from a loser be taken?

[North2011]

07:31 PM on 09/07/2011

Romney???

Remember if Ron Paul was named, Pawlenty would lose his new lobbyist job.

[Mohammed Noori]

07:18 PM on 09/07/2011

Setting aside what I think about any of the potential candidates and Obama, it's a travesty your country has only two parties. In a country as large and diverse as the US, you should have at least 4 or 5.

[PickOneTwoThree]

07:24 PM on 09/07/2011

Not enough money to have more than 2 parties.

[Kevin Rayburn]

05:30 AM on 09/08/2011

I definately agree, i think at least a third party might prevent any one party gaining too much control and then using that power to impose their will on the people, like what happened here in 2009.

[txrose4ever]

09:13 PM on 09/08/2011

We definitely need a third party. Then our choices would be BAD, BAD, and MAYBE? For our system to be such as it is, where money and power concentrated in the Democratic and Republican parties, effectively forces out third party contenders. this needs to change. A third party could help break the corrupt status quo.

[PickOneTwoThree]

06:36 PM on 09/07/2011

Pawlenty was good on Colbert.

BUT as Colbert said - would he have said the same things if he was still in the race.

[Querent]

06:03 PM on 09/07/2011

Shooting sparks up his butt probably would have been the most interesting thing Pawlenty would have done in his campaign, but I doubt it would have gotten him any more votes.

[drwtsn]

11:43 PM on 09/07/2011

It might have gotten him Marcus Bachmann's vote, but that wouldn't have helped him in Iowa.

[tangelan]

05:03 PM on 09/07/2011

Did no one ask him how he ran out of money preparing for a straw poll?

[Querent]

06:27 PM on 09/07/2011

Um . . . he spent it all?

[tangelan]

06:37 PM on 09/07/2011

Conservatives always spend the money and end up with nothing to show for it.

[PickOneTwoThree]

06:55 PM on 09/07/2011

It's a good question.

The straw poll didn't count for anything (not real votes and not binding votes) and yet these fiscally 'responsible' Republicans spent millions of dollars to get those votes. You need a ticket to vote and most of the candidates paid for the tickets. Bachman paid for more tickets than votes - another fiscal conservative there.

[apiazza]

04:58 PM on 09/07/2011

They never even talked about his lack of electability. Only that he ran out of money. Talk about being on an ego trip.

[wardropper]

05:37 PM on 09/07/2011

On the other hand, that does say it like it is...

...only money can buy you the presidency of the USA...

[PickOneTwoThree]

06:37 PM on 09/07/2011

No - he said he got less votes than Bachmand or Perry. That's a lack of electability.

[General Public]

01:11 AM on 09/08/2011

Less votes than Bachmann or Ron Paul. T-Paw was still in 3rd place. Rick Perry came in 6th place, down near the bottom, nowhere near as well as T-Paw. Mitt Romney also did terribly in the Ames Straw Poll, way behind T-Paw. Yet T-Paw dropped out, while Rick Perry and Mitt Romney are considered the front-runners. And Michele Bachmann, who won the Ames Straw Poll, is now in the single digits in national polls, in 4th place behind Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Ron Paul. So what can we learn from this? Obviously the Ames Straw Poll is a complete joke and anyone basing their campaign on trying to win it (hint hint T-Paw) has absolutely no chance. The real 2 front-runners didn't even bother trying to win the Ames Straw Poll, and came in near the bottom of that, and it didn't hurt them one bit. T-Paw should have just done what Newt Gingrich did: kept his campaign going, only without spending any money or having any campaign staff working for him. The only person you really need if you have a campaign is the candidate, after all, and you can run a campaign on a shoestring budget by just having the candidate show up at lots of events and debates but not do any ads or polls or anything, like Al Sharpton did in 2004 and Newt Gingrich is doing right now.

[rhs686]

04:56 PM on 09/07/2011

Look at all the people running for office of the POTUS.....
omg, are we ever in trouble......... Your going to tell me
we can't do better then this...

[apiazza]

04:55 PM on 09/07/2011

The current crop of Republicans running for President make John McCain look good.

[PickOneTwoThree]

07:25 PM on 09/07/2011

Maybe the John McCain of 2000.

Nothing makes the John McCain of 2008 look good.

[apiazza]

04:03 PM on 09/08/2011

Not even Sarah Palin?

[Binea]

10:27 AM on 09/08/2011

LOL I'm so so sorry..I was so flabberghasted by your obvious love of a neocon I flagged you as abusive. sorry..umm Modererator please unflag the mentally challenged oerson.

[apiazza]

04:01 PM on 09/08/2011

Did you read my micro-bio? That should give you an indication of my political stripe. It wasn't anywhere near 'love'. It was more like picking the 'least-worst.'

[randallr01]

04:50 PM on 09/07/2011

Duh. Romney is the only candidate who stands a chance. Yet unfortunately for him, Obama will win a second term.

[tangelan]

05:10 PM on 09/07/2011

I hope Mittens lying behind gets totally humiliated. First I want his advisors to convince him to change religions to get the evangelists vote.

[General Public]

01:13 AM on 09/08/2011

Unfortunately for Romney, but fortunately for America. ;-)

[Just Ask Jheri]

04:40 PM on 09/07/2011

Pawlenty, Romney, Perry, Bachmann, Paul, Palin - "You lie."

Actually, I like Huntsman, but I LOVE President Obama!