Pawlenty Supports Romney

After dropping out of the presidential race last month, Tim Pawlenty said that he would most likely endorse one of his former rivals. This week he stuck to his word and announced his endorsement of GOP candidate, Mitt Romney. Now that Mr. Pawlenty is the co-chair of Mr.Romney's campaign, most of his loyal supporters and contributors have followed, and are now supporting Mr. Romney's campaign. This move has the potential to get Mr. Romney back up in the polls, considering the dip he took as Rick Perry announced his candidacy. This pairing up did not come as a surprise to most though considering the similarities between Mr. Romney and Mr. Pawlenty's political views. Even though in 2007 Mr.Pawlenty strongly supported John Mccain against Mr. Romney and also started the term "Obamneycare" to criticize Mr. Romney's Massachutes Plan concerning healthcare, the two apparently have settled their differences and are now working together.
Mr. Romney makes a nice play by making Mr. Pawlenty his co-chair. By doing this he is not only gaining some much needed support from all those who supported Mr. Pawlenty, but he is also keeping his enemies close. With Mr. Pawlenty out of the race, he posed less of a threat to Mr. Romney's campaign, but if Mr. Pawlenty would have sided with Rick Perry history could have repeated itself and hurt Mr. Romney's campaign. By having Mr. Pawlenty on his side, he has the upper hand. He's taken a man who at first criticized him and made him into a supporter. This will show Mr. Pawlenty's followers that their leader's criticisms were maybe a little less concrete then once thought. Mr. Romney has also now positioned himself away from the tea party and more in the realm of a more mainstream republican party, unlike his closest opponent Rick Perry. On the other side of this is, could Tim Pawlenty be positioning himself for a vice presidency bid from Mr. Romney?