The second-term governor of Minnesota suddenly became everything the right-wing wished him to be. They wanted an outspoken evangelical Christian. Pawlenty, whose religious convictions have never been front-and-center, suddenly walks with Jesus 24/7.

According to the AP article, Pawlenty pointed out that "some people" (which people, exactly?) didn't think he should talk about God in his speech because that wouldn't be "politically correct".

"Hogwash," the governor said defiantly to the straw man he had just set up.

He also declared that if God was good enough for the Founding Father, he ought to be good enough for us.

His pro-God credentials established, Pawlenty moved on. The CPAC crowd also wanted a defense hawk, and Pawlenty obligingly flapped his arms and made shrieking war-like noises. They wanted a tax-cutter, and Pawlenty threw them some red meat on that issue. And they wanted a deficit hawk, and Pawlenty told them that, of course, we can cut taxes and increase defense spending and balance the budget all at once. It's really very simple, and it can be done without making a single difficult choice.

I guess eight years of the Bush administration wasn't enough for these guys.