I smirked a little bit. I had taken a glance around the room and noticed that a few people were starting to nod off. Tim Pawlenty wasn’t giving a stump speech, he was giving a lecture. While his execution was off, I still think he had a few very interesting things to say.

He stressed the importance of suburban voters, specifically, suburban women voters. He said we shouldn’t refer to them as “soccer moms,” giving a very persuasive spiel about them being in the work force, etc. He expressed a worry that suburban voters, even though they liked Republican principles, they thought of the Republicans as the party of the rich. I think he’s onto something and the Republicans have really got to fix their image. We’re seen as the party of bigots and the uber-rich.

Pawlenty, at one point, asked the audience about the person most popular among women. After a pause, I managed to answer along with him: Oprah. He said that Obama was Oprah-ish, managing to exhude that same type of demeanor.

I don’t think Pawlenty managed to tap into any of that Oprah power, but I think he’s on to something. Republicans need to appeal to suburbia, and especially suburban women.