WASHINGTON — If anything is clear about Senator McCain’s search for a vice president, it’s that Governor Pawlenty of Minnesota has learned a thing or two about campaigning — or not campaigning — for the job.

Addressing the Washington press corps here yesterday, Mr. Pawlenty was asked to name the most important qualities Mr. McCain should seek in a running mate. He flashed a small grin and offered just one: “discretion.”

He should know. The 47-year-old governor, now in the middle of his second term, has been at or near the top of the list of potential running mates from the moment Mr. McCain secured the Republican nomination in March. An early and loyal supporter of Mr. McCain’s candidacy, he has since made regular appearances as a surrogate for the Arizona senator, appearances which, combined with a pair of high-profile events in Washington yesterday, have amounted to an audition for the no. 2 slot.

Mr. Pawlenty would add both youth and executive experience to the Republican ticket, as well as a compelling life story as Mr. McCain tries to pick up blue-collar voters from Senator Obama. The son of a milk truck driver, he was the first in his family to attend college. Also helping his chances is Mr. McCain’s nomination next month in Minnesota, offering the possibility of a home-state send-off for a favorite son.

In a speech at the National Press Club, Mr. Pawlenty stayed comfortably close to the party line as he outlined the message that has become his trademark in the last year: To return to power nationwide, the Republican Party must appeal to what he terms “Sam’s Club Republicans” and modernize a platform that allowed Ronald Reagan to capture the working class and turn them into Reagan Democrats a generation ago.

“We have to be the party of Sam’s Club, not just the country club,” Mr. Pawlenty said, in a line sure to be repeated across the country this fall if Mr. McCain picks him for the Republican ticket. The goal, he said, was not to jettison wealthy and upper-middle-class voters, but simply to make the party larger. “It’s meant to be expansive. It’s meant to be inclusive,” he said, citing the need to reach out to women and minorities.

At its core, the concept represents a rebranding of traditional Republican ideas, beginning with smaller but more efficient government, to attract voters who, like shoppers at the warehouse retail giant, “are looking for value.”

“People deserve and expect a more effective government at a better price,” Mr. Pawlenty said.

He lauded Reagan as “one of the greatest leaders the world has ever known,” but he implicitly criticized Republican politicians, including the party’s primary candidates this year, who relied too heavily on the former president’s legacy to woo voters whose memory of him has likely faded nearly 20 years after he left the White House.

The Republican “idea factory” has not been updated for the 21st century, he said. “Ideas matter, and you have to have ideas that are relevant for these times,” Mr. Pawlenty said.

He did not delve into details during the speech, but he extolled ideas for a market-based expansion of health care access, energy independence, and school choice.

Mr. Pawlenty clung to Mr. McCain’s stance in answering questions about Iraq, saying he opposed an “artificial time line” for withdrawal. And he criticized Mr. Obama at times, saying the Democrat’s “life oratory” was no match for Mr. McCain’s life story as a war hero and longtime senator.

The governor raised some eyebrows earlier in the day when, speaking to party activists in northern Virginia, he praised Mr. Obama’s positive message. At the National Press Club, however, he made clear the comment was not meant as a slight to Mr. McCain, who he said had also run a positive and optimistic campaign.

In all, Mr. Pawlenty appeared to say little that would hurt his chances with Mr. McCain, but drawbacks to his selection as a running mate remain. He has scant foreign policy experience beyond a few trips overseas, and as a governor relatively unknown outside his home state and the political class, his candidacy seems unlikely to generate a wave of enthusiasm for the Republican ticket.

Mr. McCain has been urged by some to select a nontraditional running mate who could shake up the race, such as a woman or minority, or a person from outside politics or even outside the Republican Party, such as Senator Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats.

The governor made no mention of the vice presidency, but he drew laughs by using a well-received joke at the outset of his speech to dispense quickly with the topic on everyone’s mind.

“I know one of the questions that inevitably will come is, ‘When will the decision be made, who will be picked?'” Mr. Pawlenty said as he took the podium. “And I just want to address that right off the top: I don’t have any particular insights as to where Brett Favre is going to play.”