Newsweek interviews Pawlenty

Newsweek's Howard Fineman sat down with Gov. Pawlenty a few weeks ago. The interview has some interesting nuggets.

For example, Pawlenty handicaps the GOP race in 2012:

"Is Mitt Romney running? I think he would clearly be the frontrunner, he and Palin. And there is Mike Huckabee, of course, and any number of people could emerge out of Congress."

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On whether he'll run:

I'll just see. Nobody knows who I am, to speak of. I am known in Minnesota and a few pockets or circles of influence around the country. There is a legitimate question about whether somebody who is basically unknown, isn't independently wealthy, isn't famous, would have a chance.

On whether he personally believes in creationism:

Well, you know I'm an evangelical Christian. I believe that God created everything and that he is who he says he was. The Bible says that he created man and woman; it doesn't say that he created an amoeba and then they evolved into man and woman. But there are a lot of theologians who say that the ideas of evolution and creationism aren't necessarily inconsistent; that he could have "created" human beings over time.

And on when he knew McCain didn't pick him to be his running mate:

When they didn't take me out of the slot to speak in Denver outside the Democratic convention only days before ours was starting. I didn't just fall off the rutabaga cart, so I figured it out.

Read the full interview here.