The e-mail from the Democratic National Committee on Thursday was pretty typical, as these things go: a rundown of negative attacks about Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota.
But tucked into the campaign missive, which was sent to reporters on the day Mr. Pawlenty was scheduled to participate in the first Republican presidential debate, in South Carolina, was an e-mail from Ben Labolt, a campaign operative for President Obama.
“I’d lead on the pawlenty hit w/ leaving MN with a record deficit before the defensive stuff,” Mr. Labolt wrote to several Democratic National Committee officials. “Also think there’s a typo in the headline for the first section of bullets.”
The Labolt e-mail was clearly a cut-and-paste mistake by folks at the Democratic headquarters. But Mr. Pawlenty’s campaign pounced, calling it evidence of a “coordinated attack” on the former governor by the White House and the Democratic National Committee.
“If the president’s team was more focused on the economy and less focused on politics, then maybe they wouldn’t be so worried about Governor Pawlenty’s strong record and agenda,” said Alex Conant, Mr. Pawlenty’s press secretary.
In response, Brad Woodhouse, the spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, said that “this hyperventilating on his part is nothing more than Governor Pawlenty trying to distract attention from his budget-busting, failed fiscal record.”
The 2012 campaign has indeed begun.
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