If Tim Pawlenty is campaigning like it’s the final days of the nominating season, it’s because for him, it could be. He probably needs a first or second place finish at Ames this weekend to stay viable (the flip side is that his 2 percent nationally isn’t as pathetic as, say, Huntsman’s, because Iowa provides a plausible launching pad for him). So Pawlenty has gone negative against Michele Bachmann, even though a few weeks ago he said he didn’t want to be the first to throw elbows. He’s criticizing her with what you might call a heavy-handed subtlety — not mentioning her by name although all his shots are clearly aimed at her. As Kate Trinko writes in her report from Iowa, a lot of his zingers have to do with the importance of experience over rhetoric. She notes at the end a line that has become a Pawlenty staple lately: “Any bobblehead can stand up here and spout out the Republican talking points. That’s not the hard part.” So, is Pawlenty implicitly calling Bachmann a “bobblehead”? I guess so. Pawlenty seems to have a knack for finding the most annoying tropes, and he is again writing a rhetorical check he won’t dare cash in person if asked about it during the debate.