Yesterday, former Minnnesota Governor, declared Republican candidate for president, and proven cure for insomnia, Tim Pawlenty, appeared on Morning Joe on the White House’s propaganda arm, MSNBC. When asked about the possible candidacy of former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, Pawlenty answered:

Who knows? I don’t know if she’s running or not. We need to quit worrying about polls and bus tours and get onto the issue of how we’re going to fix the country and get the country back on track.

Whoever’s going to get in, I hope they get in soon.I want the field to be set, so we can have the real debate.

A recent Gallup poll showed Pawlenty with only 6 percent support among Republicans, behind Herman Cain, a Tea Party-backed dark-horse candidate. That same poll showed Palin in second behind Mitt Romney, among all GOP candidates, at 15 percent.

Pawlenty, on his way to Iowa on Monday, made the statement that regardless of Palin’s decision, potential candidates on the sidelines should enter the race sooner rather than later so that the GOP can sharpen its message against President Obama.

I realize that, as a candidate, your job is to grab all the media esposure that you can, but why would you walk into a Democrat stronghold and run down another Republican?

MSNBC certainly did not need any help yesterday in their attacks on Sarah Palin and her national bus tour.

From firstread.msnbc.msn.com:

WASHINGTON — One day after Sarah Palin announced her bus tour, a group sponsoring a Memorial Day weekend event she plans to attend said they never invited her.

“She wasn’t invited. We heard yesterday she came out with a press release she was coming to Rolling Thunder,” Ted Shpak, national legislative director of Rolling Thunder, told “Andrea Mitchell Reports.” Shpak is one of three members of Rolling Thunder’s current leadership who says he had no idea Palin was coming until it was posted on her website.

On Thursday, the former governor of Alaska and potential GOP presidential candidate announced her bus tour on her political action committee’s website, Sarahpac.com. The tour is to begin in Washington, D.C., where Palin plans to participate in the Sunday motorcycle rally sponsored by Rolling Thunder Inc., a group that raises awareness of prisoners of war and those missing in action.

“She’s not invited to speak. We’re not endorsing her … (but) we can’t stop her from coming to ride, if she wants to ride,” Shpak continued.

Organizers of Rolling Thunder say their guest speakers are Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Palin’s representatives say they were invited to Rolling Thunder – by a former board member who is emceeing the event.

Mike DePaulo tells NBC News he had a standing offer for her to ride with them from the Pentagon across the bridge to D.C. – and that he got a call from what he called “the Palin campaign” on Wednesday to see if they could take him up on it. He coordinated it with a friend of his, Joe Fields, of the Alaska Veterans’ Advisory Council, who had worked with Palin when she was governor.

A spokeswoman for Rolling Thunder says they frequently invite celebrity guests to ride with them.

 Was this an intentional hit piece?  You betcha.

Per abcnews.com’s “The Note”:

ABC News’ Sheila Marikar [@sheilaym] reports: For the riders of Rolling Thunder, the news that Sarah Palin will participate in their national rally on Sunday came as a surprise. A welcome surprise.

“I think that’s wonderful,” said Gerri Tramel, president of one of Rolling Thunder’s Tennessee chapters. “Anybody that’s involved — Republican, Democrat, independent, whatever — if you’re involved with our veterans, I think that’s wonderful. Not just Sarah Palin — anyone that’s a politician.”

…Asked how Palin came to be involved with the rally, Rolling Thunder spokeswoman Nancy Regg said, “I honestly don’t know.”

“I’m not the person that invited her,” she said. “We send letters to people all the time and invite them. We invited her to ride, she has accepted and she and her husband have both agreed to ride for us.”

Regardless of Palin’s political agenda — the “Will she or won’t she?” fervor over her potential presidential run reached new heights this week — the members of Rolling Thunder agreed her participation is a boon.

“If she wants to support the troops, we’re all for it,” said Greg Benson, president of Rhode Island’s Rolling Thunder chapter.

“I certainly welcome any positive publicity surrounding our cause, anything to bring attention to POWs and MIAs,” said Jeffrey Stewart, who leads a Rolling Thunder chapter in New Hampshire, a state that will be crucial to Palin if she runs in 2012. “Whether it’s a celebrity or a politician-celebrity — I’m not exactly sure what she is right now — having Sarah Palin there means more people will be paying attention to our cause.”

Stewart considers himself a Republican. While he’s not gunning for Palin to run in 2012, he would like more politicians to recognize the country’s veterans, as she’ll do this weekend. Like many of Rolling Thunder’s members, he’s a veteran himself, having served in the Army during the 1980s.

“I’d love to see [President] Obama walk out and say, ‘Thank you,’” he said. “I’d love to see [Vice President Joe] Biden come out and say, ‘Thank you.’ Anyone who wants to be president, I’d love for them to come and acknowledge us.”

And, if you still question the fact that MSNBC’s programming purpose is to spread blatant Progressive Propaganda, ask potential Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann about what happened to her on the night of last year’s Midterm Elections:

Pawlenty certainly had the right to his opinion about Palin’s bus tour.  However, he did not have to walk right in to one of the Democrat’s biggest propaganda machines to express it.