Lori Sturdevant: Tidbits and cogitation from the convention

Convention observations, loose ends and parting shots, while a few stray pieces of confetti still float in the air at the Xcel Energy Center:

•Gov. Tim Pawlenty -- whom America now knows was first runner-up to Alaska's Sarah Palin in John McCain's veep contest -- won sportsmanship points with the scant segment of the electorate who paid attention to him this week.

If Tim winced -- as some of his home state fans did -- when McCain heaped praise on Palin, he did it off camera.

Pawlenty's points for oratory Thursday night were considerably lower. Loyalists from Minnesota state GOP chairman Ron Carey on down kept saying that, after performing well as a McCain surrogate around the country all year, Pawlenty has a bright future in national politics. If he does, it won't be because he created a memorable moment in his brief appearance at the convention podium.

•Notable for Pawlenty watchers is that he wasn't even mentioned in the National Journal's survey of "Republican political insiders" about whom the party would nominate in 2012 if McCain loses this time. Their pick: Mitt Romney.

This too: Hurricane Gustav, a storm that seemed almost as kind to Republicans in 2008 as Katrina was nasty in 2005, may have set another GOP governor's career on a rising trajectory. Watch out for Louisiana's Bobby Jindal.

•One of the happiest Minnesotans at the X Thursday was state House Minority Leader Marty Seifert. Many in his caucus think they were driven into deep minority status in 2006 by voters aiming to punish anyone with a Republican label for the sins of George W. Bush.

Seifert believes the McCain-Palin ticket washes away some of the sour Bush taste, especially in rural Minnesota. "We're nominating the one Republican candidate who can win, and the Democrats nominated the one who can't," he said.

•Similarly pleased was former state Rep. Judy Soderstrom, who was bumped out of District 8B in the Mora area in 2006 and is trying for a comeback. Palin's presence on the ticket will help her, she said. She reported word from her husband that people in Mora were saying, "Wow, she's a person who's gone moose hunting!"

Soderstrom went on to say that her family's business selling small infrared heaters is booming. Many people fear they won't be able to afford to heat their whole houses this winter, she said, and want to be able to keep a room or two toasty.

Soderstrom got me wondering: What will matter more with voters -- a candidate's hobbies or her/his ideas for keeping Americans affordably warm in winters to come?

•Another happy guy as the convention wound down was U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman. He relished seeing a national convention in the arena built on his St. Paul mayoral watch. "In the middle of the Ohio delegation would have been where I dropped the puck on opening night" for the Minnesota Wild in 2000, he said.

"My original dream was hosting the Stanley Cup. This is the political Stanley Cup," Coleman said. "Folks are leaving here with a very good feeling about the place."

Despite chumming with his fellow Republicans for four days, Coleman was in bipartisan mode last week -- which suggested that he remained much aware that he's seeking reelection this year in a persistently blue presidential state. He heaped praise on his Senate colleague, DFLer Amy Klobuchar, on Monday, and couldn't say enough about the convention-related work of two DFL mayors, R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis and Chris Coleman (no relation) of St. Paul.

"I was real impressed with the leadership of the mayors," he said. "R.T. did a tremendous job marketing this thing. Chris did a really good job standing with the police during the demonstrations. ... The police handled this thing extraordinarily well."

Coleman even put a bipartisan note into his Wednesday night convention speech: "Some of our nation's problems are too big for one political party to solve."

He said it in praise of McCain's record of bipartisan work, though he did not call out the two McCain record unmentionables at this convention, campaign-finance restrictions and immigration. But Coleman was also burnishing his own claim to be a Republican who is willing to reach across the aisle.

"I've got a history of doing that," he said in an interview, "while Al Franken is the epitome of the worst kind of partisanship one can imagine, degrading those with whom he disagrees. Look at the contrast."

Made me do some more wondering: Is this election going to be about tone and civility, or about the direction of the country?

Lori Sturdevant is a Star Tribune editorial writer and columnist. She is at lsturdevant@startribune.com.