David Frum suggests a question for the next GOP debate: “Will Pawlenty defend his health care record?”
This is an interesting question to ask, considering (as Ezra Klein’s chart below demonstrates) the rate of uninsured in Pawlenty’s home state of Minnesota (just 9 percent) is among the lowest of any state in the nation.
The number of uninsured in Minnesota, to be sure, increased toward the end of Pawlenty’s term — because the worst recession in several generations cost the state, like all states, a good number of jobs.
When it comes to whether or not Pawlenty should be asked to defend his health care policies in a debate, it seems to me he ought to be begging: “Please don’t throw me in the briar patch!”