I THINK WE'VE NOW ESTABLISHED THAT TIM PAWLENTY WILL NEVER BE PRESIDENT

Talking Points Memo:

Minnesota First Lady Mary Pawlenty is just fine with her husband Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a potential presidential candidate, referring to her as "my red-hot, smokin' wife."

Pawlenty made the comment while speaking to the Iowa Republican Party in April. "Thank you, Lord, for my red-hot, smokin' wife," he said, quoting the Will Ferrell comedy Talladega Nights, a movie about an idiotic NASCAR driver.

"Obviously I can only speak for myself," Mary Pawlenty told the Minnesota-based ECM newspapers, "but I don't know a woman alive who wouldn't love to have her husband refer to her as his 'red-hot smoking' wife."

Oh, yeah, smooth move -- after all, this impressed GOP voters so much last time: