Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's bid to win the GOP presidential nomination hasn't exactly been catching on fire. Earlier this month, The New York Times ran a story about his candidacy under the headline "Will Republican Race's First In Be the First Out?"

The RealClearPolitics poll average puts him in eighth place in the crowded GOP race. Fellow Land-o'-Laker Rep. Michele Bachmann fares better -- second place -- perhaps because she does not try to match T-Paw's mastery of "Minnesota nice."

Then again, nice guys finish last. So Pawlenty has started talking tough -- about the need for a nominee with "executive experience" who "has a record of not just rhetoric but results."

Pawlenty's dilemma: He's not polarizing, and polarizing generates buzz, which boosts poll numbers, during the early name-recognition phase of a primary. So he has to find a way to tell GOP voters: Unlike the showboats in the field -- no need to name Bachmann, Newt Gingrich or businessman Herman Cain -- I am the Republican who won't embarrass you.

(Trust me. Republicans are sick of going to parties where Democrats buttonhole them so that they can rant about Sarah Palin. No need to double down on that.)

Despite the early poll success of the firebrands, as the election approaches, GOP primary voters tend to be highly pragmatic. Their first concern will be whether a candidate can beat President Barack Obama in November 2012. They know that a polarizing nominee cannot win. They know that a nominee who is light on experience cannot win.

Spokesman Alex Conant summed up T-Paw's strength, noting, "He was elected and then re-elected in a blue state as a movement conservative, and he governed as a movement conservative." And he won re-election in 2006, not a good year for the GOP.

Pawlenty comes from a working-class Democratic family. His mother died of cancer when he was in high school, after making his elder siblings promise that he would graduate college. He was the first member of his family to do so.