My syndicated column this week notes a recent Tim Pawlenty appearance in Washington. This reader gets to the point of it well:

We average persons don’t have a chance to go to events like the Susan B. Anthony dinner. When you report at length what a person like Tim Pawlenty says, you give us something to tuck away for the long process of selecting whom to support in 2012. Sound bites don’t work for evaluating thoughtful people like Tim Pawlenty.
Thanks for the time you take to attend and to report on events like this dinner.

It’s a long time yet, but every glimpse makes an impression one way or another, to some audience or another . . .