It’s kind of simplistic and it might seem a little sexist, but I firmly believe that people will not vote for a man if they sense that he won’t stick up for and defend the honor of his wife. Almost anything else is forgivable, and voters don’t expect all male candidates to be oozing testosterone. But there’s a baseline of masculinity that a male candidate cannot fall below and survive. The wife issue is usually what I use because it’s very clear cut. But it’s really just a marker. People can sense a lack of balls on almost any issue and consign a candidate to oblivion. Regular readers of Booman Tribune may be confused about my position on Tim Pawlenty’s chances. At first, I pegged him as the typical won’t-stick-up-for-his-wife type of candidate. You can frame this any way you want. For example, is anyone gonna believe that Pawlenty will be more of a bad-ass about terrorism than the Bin Laden-slayer in the White House?

Yet, more recently, I have been talking up Pawlenty’s chances in the primaries because I cannot see Romney surviving the debates and the advertising campaigns. And when I look at the alternatives to Romney, Pawlenty seems like the only plausible alternative. Yet, in tonight’s debate the moderator basically begged Pawlenty to attack Romney’s health care plan and he wouldn’t do it. Nothing could be more devastating to Pawlenty than to show a lack of courage to say in person what he says behind someone’s back.

Romney won the debate tonight because the candidates evidentially wanted to make a good first impression and therefore wanted to avoid being too negative or attack-doggish. In the big picture, this debate doesn’t matter and Romney still has a huge problem. The other candidates will get around to ripping him to shreds. But Pawlenty confirmed my initial impression of him. He’s the kind of guy who would let me insult his wife in public and not do a thing about it.

Americans don’t elect men like that.