Posted on 09/23/2011 12:39:50 PM PDT by freespirited
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) disagreed with several of the GOP White House contenders after Thursday night’s GOP debate, saying President Obama is not a socialist.
During the debate, most of the candidates described the president that way.
When asked Friday if he thought Obama had pursued socialist policies, Daniels laughed wryly and simply said, “No.”
He also used the opportunity to warn the contenders to be more careful with their rhetoric.
“At some stage I just think that if you’re interested in results you should just try to be careful to use words that don’t drive anybody away and if possible just take a chance to be more civil, more likeable than the other guy,” said Daniels, who added that he did not see Thursday’s debate.
“The perfectly human temptation is to match insult for insult and strong language for strong language and it feels good for about 10 minutes — but then you realize you probably didn’t add anybody to your point of view,” he said during a breakfast with reporters sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor.
Several conservatives have charged that the president’s economic policies, especially his call for the wealthy to pay more taxes, show he is a socialist.
Daniels, the former director of the Office of Management and Budget, has also earned conservative ire with his stance on social issues.
The governor, who decided earlier this year not to run for president, said that while he thought a year ago that Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) would not have been a strong presidential candidate, the political situation has shifted radically since then.
“I’d have thought, ‘Another Texan so soon?’ But boy, do things look different now,” he said. “It’s not about Rick, it’s sort of about where he’s from, but now as desperate as the national situation is I think the door is open.”
He also said that Perry’s centrist stance on immigration is “not going to be a stopper” for him in the GOP primary.
During the breakfast, Daniels warned that while any Republican “who can breathe and speak English” might be able to beat Obama in the next election because of the president’s sliding poll numbers, the problems America faces are so serious that it is important to find the right candidate.
“If it were more normal times, as a partisan I’d say, ‘That’s fine,’” he said of Obama’s decreasing popularity and the GOP field. “Winning the next election without having really prepared the country and rallying the country to go do some big things would really be a lost opportunity.”
He said Obama’s 2008 campaign should be a guiding force for what Republicans should not do this time around.
“That non-specific charisma campaign is not what I hope we as the opposition mount next time,” he said. “The situation is way too important for that.”
Daniels, who is promoting a new book, “Keeping the Republic: Saving America by Trusting Americans,” did not completely shut the door on accepting a vice presidential nomination but became agitated when asked about the possibility.
He said he was becoming tired of the question. He also said he had no timetable for making his own endorsement for president.
Daniels has endorsed his former boss Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), in the Republican primary against Tea Party candidate Richard Mourdock. While being careful not to criticize the Tea Party movement, he called Lugar a “mentor” and an “extraordinary public servant.”
“I’m not sure he’s in that much trouble,” Daniels said. “My sense is he’s likely to win, he’s working hard and he’s an icon in our state.”
When asked about the deep-pocketed fiscally conservative Club for Growth, which is targeting Lugar for defeat, Daniels was circumspect.
“All is fair game,” he said. “I regret the tactics that are often used but it’s not for me to say that people with a strong point of view ought not to be able to express it and participate.”
Goodie. As if the current RINO field needs two more RINOs.
Romney said it best, Mitch: Nice Try.
Thank you, 19th Amendment!
Yes, apparently Mitch Daniels is the exception. Pure RINO!
Now if Daniels can prove he isn’t an idiot, that might prove to be difficult.
Thank you, thank you, Jim Scott.
Who pulled the runts chain.
Who pulled the runts chain.
I agree 100% with Mitch!
BUT, my tagline still applies 100% as well...
Amen
Even Obama is scratchin’ his head over this!
“Obama is a social Democrat...”
Yes. And it’s worth recalling that the Lenin’s Bolsheviks sprang from the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party.
European social-democratic and labor parties are explicitly and unabashedly socialist. Barack won’t call himself a socialist and MSM opinion leaders criticize anybody who makes such an assertion because Americans think that they do not like socialism.
Obamunism is a unique school of economic thought. It combines the worst features of both socialism and fascism.
Elect Rick Perry or Mitt Romney and you will get more of the same from the GOP.
Enough is enough already!
So, is Daniels a fool or a scoundrel?
Here in CA I work and live next to people that are proud to say they are socialists. Us conservatives may think it’s an insult, but to them it’s a compliment.
Great Link!!!
I must disagree. Kurt Schumacher—the leader of the SPD in West Germany after WW2 was a marxist and a socialist. But in the ‘60s, the SPD repudiated most of Marx’s more radical notions, including the kid of nationalization that happened in Britain 1945-50. But They all are very much in a consolidated state. Even the “Christian” parties are statists, although they base their welfare state more of benevolence than the redistribution of wealth. The weakness of the churches in Germany is based on there willingness to let the state organize social services than do it themselves.
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