New Hamsphire beckons again for Minn.'s Pawlenty

Gov. Tim Pawlenty is headed back to New Hampshire Thursday for a speech to Manchester Republicans.

Pawlenty will speak to the Manchester Republican Committee's Lincoln-Reagan Dinner and will address about 200 people at the event, organizers said.

Prior to his speech Pawlenty will meet with Republican activists and some students at a Manchester College where the New Hampshire Institute of Politics is located. The director of that institute, Neil Levesque said Pawlenty will be seeing some students from Minnesota.

"We invited here to St. Anselm College; the institute of politics is where politics really takes place in the state," Levesque said. "He's agreed to come and meet some students who are very interested in meeting him. We've had a lot of interest so we're excited about his visit."

Pawlenty said he hasn't decided yet whether to make a bid for the White House in 2012, but he's been travelling extensively and New Hampshire traditionally holds the nation's first presidential primary.

Clifford Hurst, the leader of Manchester Republicans, said Pawlenty would make a top-tier presidential candidate.

"We're a ways away, but it starts very early here in New Hampshire. And one of the things I was thinking about and was just kind of joking about it," Hurst said. "Pawlenty was here two months ago and [it's unfortunate] that he'll probably only be able to get here every two months until the primary is over."

Pawlenty started the week in Washington D.C. where he made several political appearances over the past few days.