I meant to post this e-mail from a friend a week or two ago:

Hi Rich-Pawlenty was the lunch speaker at ALEC, which is a national convention of conservative state legislators. This is my first exposure to him as big room speaker. A few thoughts:1) He’s wonky and deeply thoughtful about policy. Remember when you criticized Romney 18 months ago for “check the box conservatism”? Pawlenty’s was an impressive outside-the-box conservatism. 2) He bored the crowd. I think the crowd wanted red meat, and they wanted to applaud. He didn’t really offer applause lines at all.3) The thoughts were extemporaneous, nuanced, and pretty obviously his own. I sense that he’s thinking about 3 levels deeper than most state elected officials.4) I had worried that he might have too regional an accent, or be overly boyish compared to McCain. It’s still a concern, but not in the way Jindal would be. He seemed like a grown up, and his accent was barely noticeable. 5) If he’s the choice, there would be no “Quayle problems”…he doesn’t seem like a lightweight on governing. On the other hand, he’s not now the political athlete that Romney and Huckabee have become. He’s probably a blue collar version of where Romney was 18 months ago, only with more authentic conservative credentials.