Minneapolis attorney Scott Johnson has been a blogging powerhouse since he launched the Power Line group blog in 2002. With two Republican presidential contenders hailing from Minnesota — former governor Tim Pawlenty and congresswoman Michele Bachmann — he talked to NRO this week about the North Star pols and other assorted political questions of the hour.

Kathryn Jean Lopez: Did you ever think you’d live to see the day where two Minnesotans would be popular Republican primary contenders?

Scott Johnson: In 1968, Minnesota had two contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Eugene McCarthy and Vice President Hubert Humphrey. We thought that defied the odds in a major way. Minnesota has not voted Republican at the presidential level for a very long time, roughly since the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. The idea that we would have two serious Republican presidential candidates in the 2012 cycle is unbelievable. Also unbelievable is the lack of interest among the Minnesota media in the phenomenon. You’d think they might want to try to figure it out.

Lopez: What’s so special about Bachmann?

Johnson: As my Power Line partner John Hinderaker says, Rep. Bachmann is a force of nature. She is smart, beautiful, conservative, a successful professional and homemaker, and a relentless campaigner who has never lost an election.

Lopez: What would the national media be most surprised to learn about her?

Johnson: The media won’t learn it — they will do their best to propagate a contrary falsehood — but Rep. Bachmann is one smart cookie.

Lopez: What’s her biggest advantage?

Johnson: I think it would be difficult to pick one. Her combination of strengths is her biggest advantage.

Lopez: What’s her greatest liability?

Johnson: The media will be dedicated to her destruction, as they are to Sarah Palin’s.

Lopez: She had one tough election fight back in 2008. How did she do it?

Johnson: I think that Rep. Bachmann has been helped in each of her three congressional races by the presence of a third-party candidate who has siphoned votes from her Democratic opponent. That help was crucial in 2008. She was reelected with a plurality of the vote thanks to the third-party candidate.

Lopez: Would she make a good president?

Johnson: I tend to believe that any president who effectively advocates conservative policies would make a good president. I think Michele would make a good president.

Lopez: Does it make sense or drive you crazy when Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann are compared?

Johnson: I think that the comparison is apt. I have thought that Michele is our own Sarah Palin. One other striking comparison between them is their support for Israel. Michele is probably the favorite guest of our local chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Lopez: Is she remotely electable in the general election?

Johnson: Rep. Bachmann might not be the strongest of the possible Republican contenders, but I certainly think she would be electable. Lopez: Was Tim Pawlenty a good governor? A conservative governor?

Johnson: In my opinion, Governor Pawlenty was a very good governor, certainly the best governor in modern Minnesota history. I don’t think that he comes out of the conservative movement, but he governed as a conservative holding his finger in the dike against a flood of Democrats in the state legislature.

Lopez: What’s his best advantage and liability?

Johnson: Governor Pawlenty’s greatest strength is his ability to connect with citizens at every level. It is a function of intelligence combined with people skills. After serving only four years in the Minnesota house, he was elected the majority leader. His Republican colleagues in the house were among the many people with whom he has worked effectively over the years. I would rate a slight liability Governor Pawlenty’s presentation of himself as a stalwart of the conservative movement. I don’t think that’s quite who he is, but he is right to perceive the opportunity in filling that niche in the race.

Lopez: Former FBI director Louis Freeh just closed an investigation into your former senator Norm Coleman and his business partner, and both get a clean bill. Is Al Franken in the Senate under false pretences?

Johnson: I am sorry to say that the plurality of Minnesotans who voted for Al Franken knew exactly what they were getting. Senator Coleman was an outstanding senator who deserved to prevail against Franken. Franken is a comedian who hasn’t been funny since the expiration of the Al Franken Decade as featured on Saturday Night Live in 1990.

Lopez: Did you watch Monday night’s debate? What was missing?

Johnson: I watched about 30 minutes of the debate. I thought that the serious contenders did well and will do better in the future. I wish they would agree on some way to cut CNN out of the mix.

Lopez: Was it missing anyone?

Johnson: I think that Paul Ryan is the most effective advocate of a resolution of the fiscal issues that threaten us. Ryan certainly has a commanding sense of leadership. I am persuaded by Paul Rahe’s case that the race misses Ryan.

Lopez: Will Barack Obama win or lose?

Johnson: In her omniscient narrative voice, George Eliot says in Middlemarch that prophecy is the most gratuitous form of human error. It is an insight on which I frequently reflect.

Lopez: Is he Jimmy Carter?

Johnson: Glenn Reynolds has asserted from the very early days of the Obama administration — referring to Obama’s record in office — that a Jimmy Carter rerun represents a best-case scenario. That may apply to the 2012 election as well. Do we have a Reagan? Probably not. On the other hand, however, the American people seem to have Obama’s number in a way that they didn’t have Carter’s until late in the day.

Lopez: What worries you most?

Johnson: I worry about Obamacare. I think that the implementation of Obamacare will have a tendency to alter our relationship with the government in a way that is destructive of our liberty and will be difficult to reverse. Compliance with its provisions is already imposing an enormous overhead on the economy.

Lopez: What gives you the most hope?

Johnson: The reawakening of interest in the principles of limited constitutional government represented by the Tea Party movement is the most hopeful political event in the United States since the election of President Reagan.

Lopez: What one question would you love to hear everyone running for president answer? Maybe especially the two you know best?

Johnson: The relative absence of serious discussion of constitutional principles from our recent presidential elections is notable. I would like to hear the candidates address the idea of limited government and specify what they would do in office to advance and restore it.