Via Dave Weigel, here’s an excerpt from the new “The Right Fights Back” e-book by Mike Allen and Evan Thomas. This segment specifically deals with Tim Pawlenty’s now famous refusal to say “ObamneyCare” during that fateful debate. (As you might recall, Pawlenty had gone after Mitt Romney on Fox News the day before — but refused to confront Romney when it counted.) It was his moment to seize — and he whiffed.

(Read the quote, and then I’ll discuss below.)

Here’s Pawlenty from the book:

The consultants say, If you get a question from the screen, you’ve got to answer the person on the screen because otherwise it’s disrespectful of the citizen. So whatever her name is gets up on the screen and says, I have a health care question. So my first swing thought is, I’ve got to answer the screen. So I say to the woman, Betty or Nancy or whatever your name is, that’s a great question about health care, and I’m doing that, and John King doesn’t want to hear any of that. He wants to hear me whack Romney. So he interrupts me the first time and says, Well, what about this thing you said about Romney and what you called “Obamneycare?” And then I start to whale on Obama because my second swing thought is, After you do the screen, no matter what question you get, you’ve got to whale on Obama because the base loves that, and they like nothing better than when you criticize Obama and then pivot to whatever point you’re going to make. So I’m thinking, screen, whale Obama, nick Mitt. So this is my three-point swing thought, so I’m through swing thought one on the screen, and King’s interrupted me. When I’m into swing two thought about Obama, he doesn’t want to hear that, either. He wants me to nick Mitt, and I’m fully prepared to do it, and we get into this awkward, I’m trying to say something, he’s trying to get me to the point. At that point I’m focused on Obama, and I thought it was a legitimate point to whale on Obama, but I decided to stay with that and not finish it with Mitt.

A few thoughts…

First, this doesn’t jibe with what former Pawlenty staffers have told me. I’ve been led to believe that his team wanted him to go after Romney — that doing so was part of the plan — but that Pawlenty’s cautious personality would not permit him to do so when the heat was on. This rings true to me.

Second, this may be an explanation, but it’s hardly an excuse. What is a worse indictment of a candidate for leader of the free world — failing to rise to the occasion during a debate — or being led around by “handlers” who tell him what to say and how to respond to questions?

The notion that Pawlenty would allow his consultants to override his gut instincts is perhaps a greater disqualifier. This is hardly a profile in courage. He is clearly portraying himself as a passive victim of the consultants who told him how to act — and a moderator who interrupted him. These explanations may all be true, of course — but it perhaps makes him look worse than we thought. Leaders seize control — or at least, accept responsibility. (This is perhaps made all the more interesting by Newt Gingrich’s recent rise. Gingrich, of course, threw off the shackles of his political consultants, refusing to do things their way. He is now leading in the polls. What a contrast.)

Third, watch the video. As Pawlenty correctly notes, John King interrupted him and clearly wanted him to “nick Mitt.” In fat, John King actually interrupted him twice — practically begging him to go after Romney.

Pawlenty could have more succinctly described the situation by simply saying, “I screwed up.”