A mere 6 months into the Obama administration, the 2012 GOP primary begins...

With this piece by MN Gov. Tim Pawlenty in the Washington Post. Okay, so maybe it began when Palin quit or with another op-ed by Romney in the WSJ or some other paper, but this is the first punch thrown. Does that count?

Pawlenty does a good job of attacking the Democrats' health care plans and manages to get a fairly obvious punch in to Romney:

Massachusetts's experience should caution Congress against focusing primarily on access. While the Massachusetts plan has reduced the number of uninsured people, costs have been dramatically higher than expected. The result? Increased taxes and fees. The Boston Globe has reported on a current short-term funding gap and the need to obtain a new federal bailout.

Let the games begin, but couldn't it wait until after 2010?