Pawlenty: Voters picked Obama for ‘leadership,’ not ‘gifts’

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Speaking to C-SPAN on Friday, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) contradicted failed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s assessment of why he lost to President Barack Obama, saying that voters picked Obama for “leadership considerations,” not for the “gifts” he’d supposedly given them.

“I think President Obama, first of all, just tactically did a better job getting out the vote in his campaign,” Pawlenty told C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers,” in an interview set to air Sunday. “But number two, he, at least at the margins, was better able to connect with people in this campaign.”

He added that Obama’s supporters weren’t “looking at the election and saying, ‘I’m going to vote because of gifts.’ I think they looked at it and said which one of these candidates would they prefer because of leadership consideration and also can understand their needs best,” he explained.

Questioned specifically on Romney’s claim that Obama’s “gifts” swayed women and minority voters, he took exception.

“You know, I don’t think its as simple as saying the president gave out gifts,” he said. “I just don’t think it’s that simple. There’s a lot more to it than that.”

This video was published to YouTube by C-SPAN on Friday, November 16, 2012.