Pawlenty: McCain will compete for Clinton backers

[Ron Burgundy]

Politico - John McCain portrayed her as a trailblazing model for aspring female politicians yesterday and now one of his top surrogates and vice-presidential prospects is taking the next natural step and promising that they'll compete for Hillary Clinton's supporters.

"I think many of those voters are going to consider and support Senator McCain," said Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty in an afternoon conference calldesigned to prebut Obama's speech tonight in St. Paul.

Pawlenty even compared the two senators, saying they shared important traits of experience and tenacity.

"They see and saw in Senator Clinton somebody they value experience in and, in many cases -- in terms of her personal characteristics -- her persistence and strength," the governor said of Clinton's backers. "Many of those same characteristics and more are in Senator McCain. So we think he's going to be able to compete for Senator Clinton's supporters to a significant degree when and if she terminates her campaign."

See Also Chicago cardinal removes Pfleger Superdelegates surge to Obama Clinton not ready to pack it in * Showing a bit of deference to the lady nobody, Democrat or Republican, wants to offend these days, Pawlenty made sure more than once to say that such a competition would only take place "if and when she terminates her campaign."

As for Obama, Pawlenty sounded a note that rung as quite Hillary'ian -- at least the 2007 version.

The likely Democratic nominee, Pawlenty argued, "is not ready for the job.* And Senator McCain is more than ready from day one to assume the role of Commander in Chief."

Or should I say Day One.

*

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080603/pl_politico/16041 [link]