That's President Ratface to you, pal

That's President Ratface to you, pal

Chin? He don't need no stinkin' chin! Pawlenty for President!

Tim Pawlenty's approach to governing Minnesota has long suggested to some of us that he doesn't mean to stick around here forever. But the persistent low buzz concerning T-Paw's status as Oval Office material has grown noticeably since ABC's widely read The Note featured this item last month:

The confetti had barely settled after the inauguration of George W. Bush for the hundreds of the nation's top conservative activists gathered in Orlando during the last week in January for a meeting of the Council on National Policy (CNP).... In informal conversations, as described by two of the participants, more than a dozen names were thrown around ? most notably that of popular conservative Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty....

We think president is too much for Pawlenty. A quick survey of the presidential portrait gallery demonstrates the hard, timeless fact: While Americans may tolerate liars, philanderers, warmongers, and thieves in the White House, they hate guys without strong chins and prominent cheekbones. It's a matter of historical record that no one with a ferret's muzzle like Pawlenty's has been elected since--well, look:

That's right--since Calvin Coolidge in 1924.

Conversely, however, we don't think a vice-presidential slot is out of the question for Pawlenty. In fact, that's exactly how Coolidge first rose to the presidency in 1923, a year before he was elected to it. All Pawlenty has to do is a) run a reasonably strong prez campaign out of the gate, a la John Edwards, and b) attach himself to a ticket-topping crook on a par with Warren Harding.