Tim Pawlenty is the Next Tom Cruise

If former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty gets the Republican nomation to run against President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, I’m not voting for him.

That said – and I feel like a clown admitting it – I think Pawlenty’s new political ad may be the most compelling I’ve ever seen. Taughty rhetoric. National monuments. Fighter jets. Kids in school. All it needed was beer, a baseball game and a Golden retriever and Pawlenty’s ad would’ve been been the most American thing I’ve ever seen. It takes a guy who’s famously understated, if not meek, and makes him out to be the hero in a Michael Bay movie.

You can’t tell me it’s not a compelling ad. The problem is it makes for a better trailer for an action flick than a political ad for a campaign. Has Pawlenty even declared his candidacy?

From an aesthetic standpoint, it’s awesome. I want to stand up and applaud. I want to pump my fists and slap Pawlenty square on the ass, Favre-style. (“Get’em, T-Paw!”) Then I start to think about the money that went into producing this thing and how it means we’re on the cusp of another political season. At least Pawlenty’s ad is strictly self-promoting and not out to say Mitt Romney is a tool or Sarah Palin is a mascot.

What’s better than malice and mud-slinging? Slow-motion and blue-collar laborers!