Pawlenty ad appropriates Romney thematic

By Glen Johnson

July 21, 2011

2 minutes to read

[fragment number=0]Republican presidential contender Tim Pawlenty is appropriating the Olympic imagery that rival Mitt Romney has tried to make his own as the former Minnesota governor seeks to invigorate a flagging campaign.

In a television ad released yesterday in Iowa, the lead caucus state, Pawlenty casts himself as battle-tested and capable of overcoming doubts as he speaks over videotape of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice’’ US Olympic men’s hockey team. It beat the Russians en route to the gold medal.

As homespun and heart-tugging as the imagery is, it’s curious for a candidate barely out of the starting gate.

“Out here, you’re tested,’’ Pawlenty tells his heartland audience. “You face an opponent experts say can’t be beat.’’

The former governor doesn’t explain who that is, but Bachmann has been leading in recent Iowa polling and Romney – who has tried to play down expectations for his caucus results – is the national fund-raising and poll leader.

Pawlenty always expected to run against Romney and seemed to relish the fight early on. But Bachmann – a US House member from his home state and an Iowa native – has upended his strategy of converting momentum from a caucus win into a challenge of Romney’s primacy in the New Hampshire primary.

Now Pawlenty is boxed in by Bachmann’s surprising – and Romney’s anticipated – strength.

“Join me, and prove the experts wrong,’’ Pawlenty concludes weeks before the Ames Straw Poll, the traditional starting point for the caucus campaign.

Meanwhile, Bostonians, Massachusetts residents, and Romney campaign staffers are intimately familiar with the imagery used by Pawlenty, himself a hockey player.

It features that star-spangled team, whose roster was replete with local kids: goalie Jim Craig of North Easton, defenseman Jack O’Callahan of Charlestown, and forwards Dave Silk of Scituate and Mike Eruzione of Winthrop.

Romney has been associated with the Olympics since he was brought in to resurrect the cash-strapped 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. The torch for them was lit by the 1980 team.

During his first presidential campaign in 2008, Romney cited the accomplishment of turning around the games as proof of his business acumen. He also tried to soothe himself after a second-place Iowa caucus victory with talk of winning the “silver’’ and heading off for the “gold,’’ and touted the support of such Olympians as speedskater Dan Jansen.

Jansen is back supporting Romney in his second campaign, and Romney is trying to emulate his success in overcoming failure en route to victory.

As for Eruzione, who scored the winning goal in the game highlighted by Pawlenty’s TV commercial, he’s backing Romney again.