Ezra Klein (among others that I’ve seen) goes after Tim Pawlenty for his apparently weak response to the ‘why are you running for president?’ question.
In one sense this is fair. It’s a stupid question, but it’s one of those necessary hoops you just have to jump through. Everyone asks it, and your willingness to take it seriously as a question is a sign of your willingness to take the whole process seriously.
On the other hand, it’s a REALLY stupid question. People want to be president because they are ambitious, and they want to be the most powerful person on the planet. It’s not complicated. Clearly there are MANY people who don’t want to be president. And those people aren’t running, or even considering it. But I bet there are millions who, if they thought they had a serious chance, would run.
By the way, I don’t really believe Pawlenty’s answer – that he seriously considered not doing it. He seems like he’s been running for years at this point. And given the way the field is shaping up, he’s got every reason to want to. At this point he’s probably got something like a 15% chance of being the next president of the United States.
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