By Rod Boshart, Mason City Globe-Gazette

OSCEOLA — Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Sunday he expects the political pendulum to swing back to Republicans in Tuesday’s election because Democrats tried to “over-reach” with “explosive” growth of government and intrusions into people’s lives.

Pawlenty, a potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate who was in Iowa to campaign for Republican Terry Branstad in the Iowa governor’s race, said two short years ago experts were saying the Republican Party was being “banished to the wilderness” in a liberal resurgence under President Obama. Now, it appears that exile will be short-lived given the expected resurgence of GOP candidates when ballots are counted this week.

“The pendulum swung pretty fast, didn’t it?” said Pawlenty. “I always believed that the Republicans and conservatives would come back because I think their values and principles are based on common sense and based on the values and principles that made the country great.

“But it certainly has come back much more quickly and robustly than I think even the optimists thought in the Republican Party and that’s a good thing from my standpoint,” he said. “I think the message across the country and here in Iowa is basically this — President Obama promised this big change and it didn’t happen. The economy’s still in the doldrums. People are frustrated with the fact that the economy is not improved.”

Pawlenty, 49, who is finishing his second term as governor of Minnesota, said Americans are tired of the “bailout mentality” in Washington and frustrated and angry about the “government over-reach” that was most evident in the health-care reform measures enacted by the Democratically controlled Congress at Obama’s insistence.

“People have just had enough,” Pawlenty said. “We don’t like this explosive government growth and government permeating every aspect of our lives and they’re going to pull it back. I think that’s what they’re going to do.”

Branstad, who previously served four terms as Iowa governor from 1983 to 1999, said the enthusiasm and support he’s enjoying is the best he’s experienced in his 12 campaigns for statewide office as he seeks to defeat Democratic Gov. Chet Culver in Tuesday’s general election. “It’s never felt any better than this, so I feel real good about it,” he said.

Branstad said Republicans are “very motivated” for a number of reasons and a lot of independent voters in Iowa “have buyers’ remorse” after supporting Obama and Democratic candidates in 2008 but not getting the change they wanted.

“People don’t like the direction in this country and they want to send a message,” he said.

The same is true about the direction of state government under Culver’s four years in Terrace Hill, Branstad said. Even though Culver has cut into Branstad’s sizable lead, he predicted it won’t be enough to change a favorable outcome for him and other Republicans on Tuesday.

“He can’t make up for what he hasn’t done in the last four years,” Branstad said. “His focus is on politics, not policy. People want a governor who’s going to focus on policy. He might be a strong campaigner, but he has not done the job as governor.”

About 200 Republicans crowded a Clarke County fairgrounds building Sunday to hear Pawlenty, Branstad and his running mate, Kim Reynolds, a state senator seeking to become lieutenant governor who returned to her hometown of Osceola for the afternoon rally.

Joe Reynolds, an in-law of Branstad’s running mate, said he didn’t think much of Culver boasting about a budget surplus, saying the $250 he paying in higher property taxes was an indirect result of Culver’s budgeting practices.

Pawlenty also campaigned with Branstad and Reynolds in Winterset because the Iowa duo wrapped up Sunday’s campaigning in Boone and Pawlenty stumped for a Republican state Senate candidate in Indianola before departing Iowa.