that was not a huge surprise because he is trying to find some space in the republican race if sarah palin doesn't enter it as the conservative you can trust. but this is a guy who's thrived pretty well as a moderate republican, and he links arm in arm with sarah palin and michele bachmann. i mean, this is another -- this is -- now that palin is back in politics, now that bachmann is on tv every five or six minutes, there's no surprise about this. just more surprising when you see a republican willing to jump on board this train. >> pawlenty has rubbed the skin off his hand pulling that steering wheel over as far as he can. some people have done that with regret. we'll see how that plays out for him. david weigel, great thanks. >> that's "countdown." this programming note for tomorrow, john hodgeman will be joining me here for a very special announcement in which i kind of concede defeat. leave the details for tomorrow. in the interim, i'm keith olbermann, good night and good luck.