Presidential wannabe Tim Pawlenty (R-Can You Hear Me Now?) is looking more and more like GOP DOA.

From Friday’s Wall Street Journal:

Pawlenty Struggles for Iowa Foothold

FORT DODGE, Iowa—Tim Pawlenty ends stump speeches all over the state with a warning to fellow Republicans.

“We’ve got an excellent opportunity to take back this country, defeat Barack Obama and get this country back on track,” the former Minnesota governor told a crowd of about 50 [!] at a library here. “The main way we could goof this up is to nominate the wrong candidate.”

It’s a none-too-veiled swipe at a fellow Minnesotan, Rep. Michele Bachmann, the tea-party favorite whose swift ascent in the polls has overshadowed Mr. Pawlenty’s presidential bid and raised questions about his viability in Iowa, site of the first-in-the-nation caucuses, and beyond.

Despite Paylenty’s pouring endless dollars into Iowa ad campaigns, his poll numbers are dismal, especially compared to Bachmann’s.

[H]eaded toward a critical early test in the Ames, Iowa, straw poll next month, Mr. Pawlenty’s numbers are low—and going the wrong way. Only 2% of Republicans in the latest Journal/NBC News poll ranked him as their first choice, down from 6% in April.

Compared to Bachmann’s 16% in the poll, second behind Mitt Romney (R-Can You See Me Now?).

The hardworking staff can’t help but think of the lyrics to Elvis Costello’s great “Watching the Detectives:”

Long shot of that jumping sign,
Visible shivers running down my spine.
Cut the baby taking off her clothes.
Close-up of the sign that says,”We never close”
You snatch a tune, you a match a cigarette,
She pulls the eyes out with a face like a magnet.
I don’t know how much more of this I can take.
She’s filing her nails while they’re dragging the lake.

Minnesota being, of course, the Land of 10,000 Lakes.