Hope floats

The Man Who Would Be VP:

Pawlenty a few minutes later pulled a prop out of his pocket.
"Barack Obama stood up at a speech recently and said that one of the things that is really important from energy policy from his standpoint is to check the pressure in our tires, so here’s a tire gauge and you can go out in the parking lot here and check your tires. Now, that’s an interesting thing – - we want you to have good pressure in your tires, you know, it will very mildly add to your fuel efficiency — but checking the air pressure in your tires is not an energy policy for the United States of America," Pawlenty said. The crowd applauded.

Maybe with over-inflated tires people would have something to hang on to when your bridges are collapsing because you’re cutting taxes instead on maintaining your infrastructure.

Pawlenty was criticized by House Transportation Committee Chairman James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.) and other members of the state’s congressional delegation last year for being slow to apply for disaster funding relief after the tragedy and for vetoing state legislation that would have invested millions in the state’s infrastructure.

The state of Minnesota was recently highlighted in House legislation for spending only 51 percent of its federal bridge funding on bridges over the past five years. Just last weekend, a 1,200-pound slab of concrete fell from the bottom of a St. Paul bridge, damaging two vehicles. No one was injured.