And you thought American campaign ads were obnoxious...

From Russia (via Buzzfeed.com), here comes an incredibly tacky, and very revealing, Putin ad.

Text:

Fortune teller [0:01]: Now we'll see, my beauty, whom fate has intended for you.

Young woman [0:06]: I'd like it to be for love.  You see, it's my first time.

Fortune teller [0:17]: The cards will tell the truth.  [0:20] I see that it will be for love, and with no deception.

Young woman [0:28]: It's him!

Fortune teller [0:32]: You'll be happy with him.  He'll protect you like a fortress.

After that, we see the girl approaching a building with a sign that says, "Voting precinct."

Tagline: "Putin.  The first time, only for (heart symbol)."

(Crossposted to The Y-Files.)

HAMPTON FALLS, N.H. - The Granite State may be just a slight clip behind Iowa in launching momentum in the GOP presidential primary race, which is picking up this week, but it is poised to hold on to its traditions in the ever-evolving process.

Former Gov. John Sununu, who just finished a stint chairing the state party, explained that New Hampshire likely has hosted more visits by potential GOP 2012 presidential contenders than Iowa has, but the public just hasn't been aware of some of those events.

Earlier this week, the Des Moines Register heralded a flurry of activity in Iowa that appeared to amount to the unofficial launch of the primary race, even though there are still no major announced candidates yet for the GOP. For activists in Iowa, the development has been a welcome one in what has been a delayed start to the race.

"I think Iowa is making more of a commercial operation of their caucus. They're holding events that they kind of trap the candidates into having to be a part of - and as part of their 'let's build up the politics in Iowa' game," Sununu said in a wide-ranging interview. "People have been up here; we just don't have those commercial events." He added, "I bet in total number of visits, we've had more total number of visits."

Sununu continued that many of the well-known likely candidates drop in for traditional small coffee sessions and community meetings that never make it into print.

"I think you have more of a low-key, traditional structure in New Hampshire, things that have always been going on, where Iowa has been adding special events in recent years that create an environment of obligation that candidates feel they have to respond to," he said. One of those is this Monday's Faith and Freedom Coalition forum in Des Moines, which several likely candidates plan to attend.

But as Sununu reminded, a perfect attendance record at all of those events doesn't guarantee a victory.

"Iowa is a manufactured process," he said. "Iowa is a caucus. I win the caucus if I have more buses than the other guy. I load up my buses, I make sure there's enough food so we can keep them at the caucus until the voting starts, and that's it."

He went on, "That's why, quite often, Iowa has surprises. What you really should be covering is the logistics in Iowa. Iowa is a logistically driven thing, and so you ought to just cut a contract with the bus company and see who's hiring."

Despite Sununu's bravado about the Granite State's role in the process, the former White House chief of staff said he would advise any candidate not to skip any of the early states.

"All the serious candidates will compete in both, I think - less of a fracture than last time," he said, because, "most of the serious candidates this time have been around once, and I think they're smart enough to know that the worst thing you can do is write one state off or another state off.

"Call it the Rudy Giuliani syndrome. Rudy's idea of writing off too many states had him out of the game quickly."

And in Sununu's mind, it's getting to be about that time when candidates have to start making plays in his state.

At this point, the veteran Republican official believes the field is going to be quite a bit smaller and less wide-open than the chattering class is suggesting. In fact, he predicted there may be only three real candidates.

Already, one potential candidate who could have made his mark in the Granite State has already ruled himself out: South Dakota Sen. John Thune.

"I thought Thune could have been a credible candidate in New Hampshire," Sununu said. "But I really thought two months ago it was almost too late for him because he had virtually never been in the state. But he hadn't done enough even two months ago to allow himself the luxury of running a credible race," he said.

The candidates who have so far shown an interest in competing in New Hampshire include former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. Texas Rep. Ron Paul has an event in the state later this month. U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels have been mentioned as possible contenders.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Wednesday defended his Republican colleague, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, and suggested that President Obama had been hypocritical in boasting about freezing pay for federal employees while at the same time expressing support for the collective bargaining rights of public workers in Wisconsin.

"The fact of the matter is the president told us at the White House that he had unilaterally frozen spending for federal employees," Barbour told reporters in Washington after speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "Federal employees don't have collective bargaining rights. The president can unilaterally freeze their pay, so the idea you guys have given the country is just like there's some constitutional right to collective bargaining."

Barbour said that about half of U.S. states, including Mississippi, either offered no collective bargaining rights or limited them.

The likely 2012 presidential candidate added that Walker and Wisconsin state Republicans were merely trying to pass a law that already exists in many other states.

"So do I think he's overreached? No, I think he's being realistic," Barbour said. "Having a one-year agreement about wages and benefits doesn't really help with the problem. You're not going to get rid of a $3.6 billion budget problem in a state the size of Wisconsin by having one year of savings."

During his Chamber of Commerce speech, Barbour touted his record on bringing job growth to Mississippi since he took office in 2004.

Barbour focused his remarks on his efforts to attract high-end manufacturing to his state and offer additional employment training without raising taxes.

"If you want to improve your revenue, the best way is to have more taxpayers with more taxable income," he said.

Barbour has said that he is eyeing April as the month when he will make his decision on whether to run for president.

On former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's impending entrance into the race, Barbour had nothing but praise for his potential rival for the Republican nomination.

"I'm crazy about Newt," he said. "We've been friends for 30 years."

Asked about the uprisings in Libya and the surrounding region, Barbour refused to follow the lead of other potential GOP contenders in criticizing the Obama administration's response to the events.

Barbour noted that he was in Israel during the initial phases of the revolt in Egypt.

"I said then it's not fair for us to criticize because, A, politics should stop at the water's edge, but also, it's very clear the Israeli intelligence did not see this coming, so how can you criticize the CIA?" he said. "It's also equally clear Egyptian intelligence didn't see it coming either. So I'm not going to be critical of American intelligence, and I don't think others should be either."

A statement released by Newt Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler late Tuesday night raised more questions than it answered when it denied widespread reports that the former House speaker would announce the formation of a presidential exploratory committee on Thursday in Georgia.

Still, even if there is no announcement Thursday, the former House speaker appears poised to become the first major Republican candidate to make a formal move into the 2012 race.

His announcement, if and when it comes, will mark the end of the preliminary stage of the 2012 cycle, which has seen potential candidates traveling to early voting states and eyeing each other cautiously, while not yet officially launching their campaigns.

Several other serious contenders for the Republican nomination still appear to be weeks, if not months, away from making their own decisions. The wide open nature of the 2012 race has led many candidates to believe that there is little to be gained from opening themselves up to attacks from their rivals and burning through precious financial resources almost a year before the first votes are cast.

But Gingrich's early entry into the race would carry with it some clear and potentially significant benefits for the former Georgia congressman, who is widely considered one of the GOP's intellectual heavyweights.

Tim Albrecht, the communications director for Republican Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, suggested that Gingrich would be wise to jump in now and seize the political treasures that might be gained from being the most aggressive contender.

"Being the first candidate to announce carries with it a great opportunity to generate a lot of buzz with your entrance," Albrecht said. "It effectively means the staring match is over, and somebody blinked."

Now that a major candidate appears ready to enter the race and begin to more actively seek out the services of aides and activists in Iowa, Albrecht said that his would-be rivals might not want to cede additional ground.

This dynamic could create a domino effect, in which other contenders formally enter the race more quickly than they might have wanted.

"This is still Iowa, and while some could be tempted to rely on media stories and paid advertising, someone like Newt understands grassroots politics and will work very actively to recruit precinct captains beginning on day one," Albrecht said.

Widely expected to be a brief stepping stone on the way to the launch of an official campaign, Gingrich aides would not yet confirm the exploratory committee's launch date, which previous reports have indicated is imminent.

A Gingrich spokesperson did confirm that the former speaker would on Thursday be in Georgia - where he served in Congress for 20 years - to meet with the state's Republican governor, Nathan Deal. Gingrich and Deal are also set to hold an afternoon press conference.

If Gingrich's announcement does still come sometime within the next few days, recent precedent from the earliest entrants to the last presidential campaign may be less than encouraging for the former speaker.

When former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack made his White House campaign official in November of 2006, he became the first serious Democratic candidate to throw his hat in the ring. Less than three months later, however, Vilsack also became the first contender to leave the race, citing a lack of adequate fundraising capability.

On the Republican side, then Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback became the first major GOP candidate to officially announce his run in December of 2006. But Brownback lost steam after a disappointing third-place finish in the Ames Straw Poll in August of 2007 and dropped out less than three months later.

Robert Haus, an Iowa Republican consultant currently unaligned with a prospective candidate, said that Gingrich differs from previous first entrants like Vilsack and Brownback because the former speaker is a national figure and already has in place a vibrant fundraising operation.

"I think there are clear advantages to being first," Haus said. "The great thing about caucuses is that they're pure numbers games. You've got to identify your supporters and turn them out, so the sooner you start, that gives you more time to do it."

Gingrich is set to travel to the first-in-the-nation caucus state on Monday where he will speak at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, which is slated to be the first Iowa event of the cycle featuring multiple likely presidential candidates.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, and former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain - a longshot candidate who was the first to form an exploratory committee - will also speak at the event.

But in light of his impending announcement, Gingrich appears poised to generate the lion's share of media attention at the forum - another reason why his entrance into the race could end up paying some early dividends - though the confusion that was apparently perpetuated within his political team on Tuesday could raise concern about his operation's organization.

If Gingrich does indeed take the plunge, his every utterance will be parsed even more extensively than it was before.

And as someone who has a reputation for generating controversy though off-the-cuff comments, the former speaker will have to be more careful than ever in avoiding self-inflicted wounds as he transitions from the contemplative stage to an active campaign.

On the heels of his speech at the Tea Party Patriots' policy summit in Phoenix over the weekend, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has released a new video designed to highlight his solidarity with the tea party movement's cause.

Titled, "Tea Party: A New Birth Of Freedom," the online video opens with shots of rally-goers in Washington, D.C., waving "Don't Tread On Me" flags as Pawlenty describes the grassroots movement as a "great addition to the conservative coalition and the coalition for change in this country."

The theatrical 85-second video posted on Pawlenty's YouTube page was produced and edited in a similar fashion to two other online videos that the likely GOP presidential candidate has previously rolled out, which touted his broad vision for the country and support of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's union standoff respectively.

"We, the people of the United States, will rise up again," Pawlenty says in a highlight of his Phoenix speech, which is featured in the new video. "We will take back our government. This is our country. Our Founding Fathers created it, Americans embraced it, Ronald Reagan personified it, and Lincoln stood courageously to protect it."

The latest video appeared designed primarily to reintroduce Pawlenty to tea party voters, who may not be as familiar with the former Minnesota governor's record and movement conservative bona fides as they are with some of the other prospective candidates' grassroots credentials.

But the video is also clearly part of a broader effort to rejigger Pawlenty's image. Often described as an easygoing, mild-mannered Midwestern politician, Pawlenty has been working to exhibit a more fiery side as he looks to feed off the passion of the tea party movement in advance of his likely announcement of a presidential run.

"Now and as ever, this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom," Pawlenty shouts in the video, his voice growing hoarse. "Our government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth, and America will remain the greatest country the world has ever known."

RealClearPolitics caught up with Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley at the 2011 National Governors Association Winter Meeting in Washington.

RCP: The 29 Republican governors are developing a group identity as vocal budget cutters, especially after the recent election. Can you describe the group identity of the Democratic governors, and where that is headed?

O'Malley: All of us are focused on jobs, opportunity and making the tough choices necessary to move our states ahead of this recession.

There's two dynamics going on in the other camp - actually there are several.

One is the run-up to their presidential nomination. They don't have a presidential candidate; we do. So the jockeying and the personalities get very much elevated on their side. The other dynamic they have is the sort of union-bashing detour that some of their governors chose to take at a time when people want us to be bringing people together to figure out how we can drive innovation, how we can create jobs, how we can be winners in global trade, and not losers.

We can't really control what they do or what they don't do, but we can, as a group, stay focused on job No. 1, which is creating jobs and moving our economy forward, and that's what we've done. And we're doing it as a group much better than they ever have this weekend.

This is the first time we ever met in advance of the NGA weekend rather than playing catch-up at the end of it. And I think you'll see from this DGA a continued focus on job creation, the economy, partnering with CEOs to figure out how we can harness innovation. And that's really the common intersection with Democratic governors and business leaders in our country, is the belief that innovation is the key.

RCP: Who are the Democratic governors to watch?

O'Malley: I think among the new ones [John] Hickenlooper in Colorado is a very entrepreneurial, non-ideological, pragmatic former mayor who speaks with clarity, believes in delivering results and managing for results.

And I think in that same vein, Dannel Malloy, the new governor of Connecticut, is managing for results, sort of CEO-type of executive. He's not ideological -- he's pragmatic, and that's the way he was in the Conference of Mayors when I worked with him there.

[Peter] Shumlin, in Vermont, who has a business background, speaks with clarity as a business owner, a CEO.

I think those are a few of our new ones who I think are good people to watch.

[North Carolina Gov.] Beverly Perdue, and her leadership of the Southern Governors Association and their focus on innovation, and her state and the transformation that it is going through with her leadership in harnessing life science and biotech and innovation to transform a Southern state economy and diversify.

I think all of those are very capable solid leaders. I mean, none of them have this stand-up routine that [New Jersey Gov.] Chris Christie pulls off. Christie has the best stand-up routine in the RGA, but I think most people, when they vote for governor, are hoping for a man or woman that will bring people together to create jobs and move their state ahead of the recession.

RCP: Who are some of your favorite Democratic gubernatorial candidates to watch in the next two years?

O'Malley: We have four races this year, and then 11 races in '12.

Jack Markell is a real good executive; he's up that year. He was our immediate past chair. He's up in Delaware.

Bev Perdue, our vice chair, is up that year.

Brian Schweizter's retiring in Montana - all of the recruitment process is still under way in all of these. Just as the political landscape changed pretty dramatically from two years, I think it will be just as dramatically changed two years from now.

And I do think it's a time when all of the old, traditional ways of looking at the world might not apply. In other words, if candidates emerge in either party who can articulate a concept for winning this ill-economy, for making it ours, and can articulate that in a compelling way and with principle and with conviction and with a compelling story, I think that any race is potentially up for grabs, regardless of party

RCP: Who do you see on the Democratic Party's national bench for several years down the road?

O'Malley: We have a lot of great leaders in the Democratic Party, and I think that these next two years now that the recovery and reinvestment dollars aren't there will be a time when voters are going to be able to see very clearly whether their governors can govern, whether their governors can balance budgets and move their states forward. And a lot of these men and women aren't going to be able to do it.

You've seen it play out in so many ways. It's hard to make your government work and manage it properly, if you believe your government's the enemy and your government's the problem.

Some of these antique FDR haters just aren't going to serve their states very well now that the recovery dollars are no longer there to support important state functions, and I think it's going to lay bare a lot of these sort of stand-up comic routines that have been masquerading as good governance.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is preparing to announce in a matter of days whether he will form an exploratory committee for a presidential campaign.

Earlier this month, Gingrich told Fox News that he would decide about a White House run by early March.

A Gingrich adviser told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Saturday that the former Georgia congressman would announce the formation of an exploratory committee in his home state within ten days, and the Associated Press reported that Gingrich would take "a formal step" toward a step toward a presidential run within two weeks.

Gingrich has for months been making frequent visits to early voting states, and Republican officials in Iowa said that the former speaker has been second only to former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty in the extent of his behind-the-scenes maneuvering in the first caucus state.

During a trip last week to Florida, Gingrich publicly affirmed his support for the current early voting state structure.

"I think it is very important to recognize that Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina hold the first three slots and I think that is the right thing to do because of their size," Gingrich said before adding that Florida would have to negotiate with the RNC if it wanted to go fourth.

Gingrich aides would not confirm that he was set to announce his candidacy but pointed to his previous comments about the timing of an announcement, which they indicated was still on track.

Gingrich appears poised to become the second prospective Republican candidate to announce an exploratory committee after former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain did so in January.

With his long record of government service and reputation for having a vigorous intellect and penchant for finding controversy, Gingrich carries with him perhaps the more obvious strengths and weaknesses of anyone in the prospective field of candidates.

Advisors to Gingrich have indicated that the former speaker would direct his campaign strategy to try to attract support from a broad coalition of Republican voters in a prospective field that is likely to be crowded with candidates hailing from various wings of the party.

In a Gallup poll of Republicans and Republican leaning independents released last week, Gingrich stood in fourth place among prospective GOP candidates with 9 percent of the vote.

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell on Friday cited state ethics laws in stopping short of endorsing a potential presidential campaign by his predecessor, former Gov. Sarah Palin.

But Parnell had nothing but kind words for the woman under whom he served as lieutenant governor for two-and-a-half years.

"You're going to get me in ethical trouble because in my state, I can't speak to political races," Parnell said during a Q and A session with reporters at the National Press Club in Washington. "I can certainly tell you that I think Gov. Palin is qualified to serve and can do that if she so choses, but for me to make any kind of political statement, I am ethically obligated not to."

Parnell was in Washington to attend the National Governors Association's winter meeting and to meet with members of the Alaska congressional delegation and with Obama administration officials.

The Republican governor's National Press Club speech was designed to promote increased domestic oil exploration and production-a goal that he said was increasingly important to American economic and national security interests, in light of the recent uprisings in the Middle East.

Parnell is working with supporters in the Alaska state legislature to amend the tax structure for companies that drill for the oil that funds almost 90 percent of the state's budget.

The 2007 increase in taxes on oil companies, which Palin helped push through the legislature, was a signature achievement that she touted during her 2008 vice presidential run. But Parnell said that the tax increase had hampered the state's ability to compete economically.

"I believe that Alaska needs to make itself more competitive, so to do that, we are working to lower taxes," Parnell said.

The Alaska legislature has been holding hearings on the proposal for three weeks and the state House has been taking amendments on a bill to change the tax infrastructure.

"My hope is that a state House committee will be able to move that bill to the state Senate and we can create a more competitive environment in Alaska," Parnell said.

Parnell said that he has not been in touch with Palin to discuss the proposed changes to the current tax regime, which she would likely be compelled to defend if she were to run for president.

Asked about a former Palin aide's accusations in a proposed book manuscript that Palin had illegally coordinated with the Republican Governor's Association during her 2006 gubernatorial run, Parnell-who was Palin's running mate at the time-said that while he remembered the television advertisement in question, he did not recall being present when it was filmed.

"No, I mean, I read the news story, and I never saw that myself, so I couldn't offer a grounded opinion on it," he said.

As Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels navigates what appears to be an increasingly treacherous political minefield as he contemplates a presidential run, it may be instructive to view how he's handled himself in past political situations.

Right after the 1986 midterm elections, when the GOP lost eight Senate seats on his watch as political director of the Reagan White House - and Republicans were staring down what appeared to be a tough 1988 presidential election - Daniels plunked himself down in front of veteran Washington journalists Rowland Evans Jr. and Bob Novak for an interview on the duo's CNN show. He easily swatted down a series of questions about the party's political positioning in light of the midterms and the fallout from the Iran-Contra scandal, earning him glowing praise from Evans.

This week, Daniels has steeled himself against a media and rightwing onslaught for dropping right to work legislation in Indiana and choosing not to send state troopers after Democratic lawmakers who fled the Hoosier State to avoid voting on the legislation. Forced to clarify comments that were misconstrued by some media outlets on Tuesday, Daniels has held a press conference every day this week and is holding national interviews to make his position clear.

In the same way, Daniels came out swinging in his Jan. 4, 1987, appearance on CNN's "Evans and Novak," to such an extent that Evans sought out Anthony Dolan, who served President Reagan as chief speechwriter for his entire presidency, and urged him to view Daniels' appearance.

The reason, Dolan said, was what Evans told him: "It was one of the finest performances by a political operative they had ever seen, particularly one that he and Bob Novak were deliberately trying to trap or embarrass."

In introducing Daniels on the program, Novak mentioned the scandal and the GOP's heavy losses and said, "Nobody has been closer to the situation than Mitch Daniels, an architect of President Reagan's activist campaign to try to save the Senate last year."

A calm and unflinching Daniels handled the pair's questions about the GOP's positioning ahead of the 1988 election by noting that the Republican Party had a built-in advantage with an Electoral College that tilted in favor of the party.

"I don't see a Democrat, an individual potential nominee, who I find all that frightening for next time. They've got big problems of their own to solve, as we do," he continued.

And in a line that his potential campaign is almost certain to trot out again, he defended President Reagan when Novak asked him if Reagan's presidency was on the skids as his administration barreled into its final two years.

"I think the point there is that conservatives who owe their entire political existence to Ronald Reagan may have lost heart and lost gumption, but he hasn't," he said. "There's a big agenda yet to be completed. And just because maybe you folks are tired of writing about SDI [the Strategic Defense Initiative], or the Central America freedom fighter issue, does not mean that those agenda items have been completed. On the contrary, there are some big-ticket items yet to be addressed and defended."

He went on to handle a line of questions about the White House's supervision in the Iran-Contra affair and defended Reagan while taking care not to discuss publicly his request that then-chief of staff Donald Regan leave his post.

Asked by Novak later if federal health insurance for catastrophic illnesses is a good agenda item for Republicans, Daniels said, "I sure do, and I'm glad you asked, Bob."

"You're always talking about being in touch with the grassroots," he continued. "I don't know how you could have missed this one worse than you have. You have said that this has to do with coddling up to Democrats. It doesn't. The biggest problem we faced in this election, over half the Senate elections held, the No. 1 issue for the Democrats was Social Security and care of the elderly. This is a grassroots issue of importance to 50 million Americans."

The last question Novak asked Daniels was if he thought it was a bad idea to raise the salaries of operatives, members of Congress and Cabinet officials above $100,000 per year, and he said it was.
As governor of Indiana two decades later, Daniels takes home about $95,000 per year.

At the close of the show when Evans and Novak reflected on their guest, Evans pointed out that it's rare to meet an honest politician but said, "He's a very honest man."

Flash forward to 2004, and Daniels trusted himself enough to shoot 30-minute "reality TV" episodes about his gubernatorial campaign, which his campaign repeated in 2008.

That Daniels has been so active in the media and politically deft under pressure underscores what has been missing from the discussions about his potential presidential candidacy.

Layered beneath the buzz that he has the most abundant economic record of any potential candidate in the Republican field but may lack charisma is his storied career as a political operative that included his stint in the White House, as well as a campaign manager for Indiana GOP Sen. Richard Lugar and executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Dolan put it this way: "This notion that Mitch is just a policy wonk is preposterous. He's a very skillful polemicist."

And for that reason, he noted, "That's why Mitch's presence in the televised debates will be galvanizing."

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has ramped up an aggressive campaign to come to the defense of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker as the ongoing political standoff in Madison continues to make headlines nationally.

On Wednesday, Pawlenty appeared on Fox News and chastised Wisconsin Democrats who have fled the state in order to delay a vote on Walker's proposal to take away collective bargaining privileges for public employees.

"When you raise your right hand, and you look the people of Wisconsin and the country in the eye and say that you're going to uphold the Constitution and uphold your duties, and then the first time you have something that isn't going to go your way, you skedaddle like a little ninny out of the state, it is a dereliction of duty, and they should be removed from office," Pawlenty said.

Pawlenty doubled down on his efforts to insert himself at the forefront of the issue on Thursday when his political action committee launched an online video and petition drive in support of Walker.

The 60-second clip features a similar dramatic musical score and fast-paced editing techniques that Pawlenty's PAC had used in a previously released spot, which highlighted the likely presidential candidate's leadership skills and vision for the future.

In the new video, Walker is shown mentioning Pawlenty's name along with popular Republican governors Chris Christie of New Jersey and Mitch Daniels of Indiana. A Fox News host is also seen mentioning that some of the protests in Madison were being staged by the DNC and Organizing For America.

"It's really important that America stand with Walker, stand with Wisconsin," Pawlenty says at the end of the video.

The video directs viewers to a website, www.StandingWithScott.com, which then takes users directly to a page on Pawlenty's Freedom First PAC's site where a petition can be signed in support of Walker.

The PAC's website asks for petition signers to provide their names and email addresses -- data that Pawlenty aides can then retain for future appeals.

Other potential GOP presidential candidates including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee have also expressed public support for Walker, but Pawlenty's appeal stands out in its forcefulness.

A former union member himself, Pawlenty has often spoken out about labor issues in the past, and his eagerness to insert himself into the controversy is indicative of his capacity to seize upon a local issue that has quickly morphed into a national ideological debate, while maintaining his blue-collar bona fides.