"Running" for President

Chris Good reports on Pawlenty:

First not running for reelection, then forming a PAC, and now a trip to Iowa.

But then he inexplicably concludes:

This, of course, doesn't mean he's running for president.

No, actually, it does mean he's running for president. It doesn't mean he'll still be running by the time we get to the Ames straw poll, and doesn't mean he'll formally announce a candidacy or wind up contesting primaries and caucuses. For now, though, Pawlenty is running for president, and there's no point in observers keeping to the fictions that candidates must observe (because of political convention, but also because of campaign finance rules).

Pawlenty is running. Romney is running. Any Republican Senator or Governor who shows up in Iowa or New Hampshire this year is running, for now. Reporters: please tell us what's happening, not fiction.