Here is Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty - who is clearly running for president in 2012 - in an interview with David Gregory:

Pawlenty also questioned the 2008 federal bailout of the mammoth American International Group under former President George W. Bush.

"How much worse would the world be without AIG? I mean, really? I make an argument it might be better," he said.

"So you would have let AIG default?" Gregory said.

"I think so," Pawlenty responded.

This is one of those consequence-free comments that politicians just can't resist. People may rightfully hate AIG and its role in the financial meltdown, but we can safely assume - with a degree of certainty approaching 100% - that faced with the same kind of dire situation where the choices were bad (bailing out a bad actor) and worse (global financial cataclysm), President Tim Pawlenty would have done exactly the what Bush did. The potential risks involved with letting AIG fail were too great, and doing so would have been irresponsible under the circumstances.

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