The latest new Tim Pawlenty is the born-again neoconservative moving to the far right on warmaking issues, destined to clash with Ron Paul in the presidential debates. Actually, Pawlenty is not a born-again neocon. This is his first birth as warmaker in his latest version of Pawlenty. By contrast with Ron Paul, who has always been Ron Paul.



Pawlenty was last seen declaring war against ObamneyCare, a war Pawlenty surrendered before the first battle. What a wimp! The latest Pawlenty, after heading for the hills in his war against Romney, is now escalating his war for Afghanistan. His new neocon position directly contradicts the long-held position of Ron Paul, setting the stage for a huge clash in the coming debates.



There will be a mano-a-mano, head-to-head, face-to-face clash between the neocon version of Pawlenty and the anti-neocon view long held by Paul. It will be debate fireworks galore!



The other candidates will be trapped in the middle, and it will be fascinating to watch them maneuver. Which Mitt Romney will come to the plate about Afghanistan? As usual, Romney is still deciding what he is for and what he is against, and in what order.



Which way will Michele Bachmann Michele Marie BachmannEvangelicals shouldn't be defending Trump in tiff over editorial Mellman: The 'lane theory' is the wrong lane to be in White House backs Stephen Miller amid white nationalist allegations MORE swing on the war issues? When Bachmann figures out that what I am writing here is true, she will rush to the briefing books and summon her consultants and take her stand on war and peace.



Perhaps in Sarah Palin's next film about herself, or book about herself, in her endless obsession with herself, she will be forced to take a stand on the serious matters.



Make no mistake, Pawlenty's latest maneuver to the neocon right sets up a direct and high-visibility clash with Paul, the only directly anti-neocon Republican in the 2012 race.



It's probably worth a money bomb or two, and will be a sight to behold, along with the sight of the other Republicans taking their polls and trying to figure out whether they stand closer to Pawlenty or Paul.



Then again, Ron Paul will always be Ron Paul. But we will see how long the neocon Pawlenty lasts, how far nature will allow Romney to straddle on war and peace, and what Michele Bachmann's briefers come up with, for her to say, as the Pawlenty-Paul clash becomes red-hot.

