DOVER, N.H. - Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty joined longtime friend and political mentor John McCain on the senator's reenergized presidential campaign through the New Hampshire countryside on Saturday, calling McCain "one of the greatest leaders this country has ever seen."
Pawlenty, a co-chairman of McCain's national campaign, made the hasty trip to New Hampshire on Friday and is scheduled to introduce the Arizona Republican at a series of town hall meetings through the weekend.
"The best sermons aren't preached, they're lived," Pawlenty told a gathered crowd. "You are going to hear a lot of people from ads and speeches where the words are interesting. But I hope you will put the yardstick not around the words but around the people who have walked the sermon."
Pawlenty has often represented McCain at campaign events, particularly in neighboring Iowa, and said the campaign decided the two should work together on several dates in December and January.
Pawlenty's trip to New Hampshire comes as the Jan. 8 presidential primary, which follows the Iowa caucuses, approaches. It also comes as McCain seems to have regained some momentum after his early lead in New Hampshire evaporated one month earlier. Recent statewide polls show him closing the gap with longtime front-runner Mitt Romney.
McCain, who campaigned for Pawlenty during his reelection bid in 2006 and included the governor on several trips to Iraq, described Pawlenty as a "dear friend and the next generation of leadership in America."
In jest, he told weekend crowds that Pawlenty decided to come to New Hampshire because "it was too cold in Minnesota."
Although many New Hampshire voters at Saturday's events didn't seem immediately familiar with Pawlenty, some did recall his performance on national news shows after the Interstate 35W bridge collapse in August.
