Tim Pawlenty Might Be President of the United States One Day

Formerly-moderateish/increasingly-conservative Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty may or may not be running for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, and — as frightening a statement about our times as this might be — he might actually be the least ridiculous contender going.

Here are a few snippets from an interview he did with Newsweek, to show what the most reasonable Republican candidate talks like in the year almost-2010…

On Creationism vs. Evolution…
Well, you know I'm an evangelical Christian. I believe that God created everything and that he is who he says he was. The Bible says that he created man and woman; it doesn't say that he created an amoeba and then they evolved into man and woman. But there are a lot of theologians who say that the ideas of evolution and creationism aren't necessarily inconsistent; that he could have "created" human beings over time.

On his opposition to medical benefits for same-sex couples…
My general view on all of this is that marriage is to be defined as being a union of a man and a woman. Marriage should be elevated in our society at a special level. I don't think all domestic relationships are the equivalent of traditional marriage. Early on we decided as a country and as a state that there was value in a man and a woman being married in terms of impact on children and the like, and we want to encourage that.

On the presidential qualifications of Sarah Palin…
She is easily as qualified as Barack Obama. I would argue she's more qualified in terms of leadership, experience, management, and supervision — actually running something. She was a mayor, head of an energy commission, and governor.

I think the best thing that we can hope for, at this point, is that Pawlenty's Evangelical beliefs are true, and that God pushes the Rapture button sometime in the next few years. Then he and Palin and Huckabee and the craziest faction of Republican voters could all get sucked up into Heaven and leave the rest of us alone.