Posted on 02/26/2010 1:43:39 PM PST by Cheap_Hessian
After months of Shermanesque denials, Indiana GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels’ admission that he’s now willing to consider a White House run has roused his long-standing, if unofficial, fan club.
Republican admirers from Washington, Indiana and elsewhere, hoping to encourage their favorite Hoosier, are out in force to make the case that a balding, blunt, unprepossessing, listed-at-5-foot-7 policy wonk would be a strong contender to take on President Barack Obama. Their shorthand is that he’s the un-Obama. If the country has soured on a charismatic orator who brought glamour but little executive experience to the presidency, the thinking goes, then Daniels could provide the antidote.
“Do we want a president that’s pretty, or do we want one who can get the job done?” is how Anne Hathaway, a former Republican National Committee chief of staff who is now back in her native Indiana, puts it.
At 60, Daniels’s résumé is exhaustive: He’s a Princeton-educated former Senate chief of staff-turned political operative-turned think tank chief-turned Fortune 500 executive-turned White House budget director-turned two-term governor.
And since winning the governorship in 2004, he has practiced the sort of fiscal conservatism that he preached as “The Blade” during his tenure as President George W. Bush’s head of the Office of Management and Budget.
“Mitch is the real thing,” said Nancy Dorn, his deputy at OMB and now the head of General Electric Co.’s Washington office. “He’s a true fiscal conservative.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
As a former Hoosier who had to leave due to the failing Indiana economy, let me say no thanks... This is the man that said implementing daylight saving time (better known as daylight wasting time) was the main way to save the Indiana economy. Let’s just say that he forced DST through and I no longer live in the state despite that passing.
atheists don’t like him because he said:
“Atheism leads to brutality. All horrific crimes of the last century were committed by atheists—Stalin and Hitler and Mao and so forth—because it flows very naturally from an idea that there is no judgment and there is nothing other than the brief time we spend on this Earth.”
IIRC, Mitch has strayed into RINO land from time to time.
I am not sure if there are any problems with the toll road since a foreign company took over the management....if there aren't any, I say get over it.....
yeah the first thing he tried to do was call to raise taxes. The legislature didn’t go for it and they balanced the budget without it.
The Conservative... and U.N. Skeptic Bolton is perfect as a VP candidate.
I don’t know how you can say Bolton would be a better fit as a VP than a SOS.
Which had nothing to do with my question.
It’s not something that a social liberal would say. Did he sign a bill that restricts abortion in his state? I don’t know.
He is against atheism, who isn’t? If that is your selling point then it isn’t looking very good for the guy.
I know he tried to raise taxes in Indiana, though - which my Indiana friends are still irate about.
He could potentially pull from Romney those Moderate Republicans who might otherwise endorse Mitt. It might be the first real vote-splitting against the Moderate candidate, since Pawlently will likely not show support outside of MN and his neighbor states.
My only concerns now is that I think DeMint wants to be Mitt's Veep, and might work to quash Palin in the SE. Couple that with fears of some other candidates running in areas where Palin would otherwise be strong, and I think the GOP will be up to their old tricks.
So to me, Daniels would be a good entrant. He'll almost certainly feed from the same trough as Mitt when it comes to endorsements and voters.
I do like DeMint for Prez. Add Paul Ryan or Sarah Palin for VP and we could generate a lot of enthusiasm. I’m tired of rinos. If 0bamacare does get through we need the presidential candidate to pledge NOT to enforce or administer the unconstitutional aspects (is any of this legislation constitutional?) of this legislation.
As a Hoosier opposed to DST, that's not what he said. He said that the lack of DST hindered the economy, not that DST was the "main way" to save it.
In any event, Indiana's economy is not as bad compared to some of its neighbors, and I'm pleased that Daniels fought Bauer tooth-and-nail on spending the rainy-day fund last year, or else we wouldn't have it this year.
I would like to see how David Heineman would do in a primary debate, but he will take a sure thing Senate run against Nelson over a no shot presidential bid. John Thune would be interesting, but Palin has as good of a shot as anyone.
I was disenchanted with Daniels when he and our Indiana legislators prescribed Daylight Savings Time after decades of leaving the clock alone. Considered it unnecessary meddling. But if this is the worst I can come up with it sure ain’t much.
I'm not sure what you mean by "non-social conservatives," but Mitch hasn't really weighed in on a lot of social issues. He ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility and that's how he's governed. On social issues, he tends to stay out of the way and lets the legislature do whatever it wants. He's gotten some flak for that from conservatives, but I really haven't minded it. Guy's got bigger fish to fry.
It shouldn’t be hard to understand, is he a true conservative or is he a little mushy on social conservatism?
questions to consider:
he is Presbyterian, if the evagelicals don’t go for him in Iowa he’d need a breakthrough in New Hampshire.
“Daniels is a in 1959 while still in grade school. Daniels is a first generation Syrian American[5] and is a supporter of the Arab-American Institute, having been honored by them for his work in the community”
he worked on the unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign of William Ruckelshaus. While in college he interned in the
Richard Lugaroffice of then-Indianapolis Mayor. RINO’S?
and promoted to Senior Eli Lilly and Company. From 1993 until 1997, Daniels was President of North American He then left Hudson in 1990 for the pharmaceutical company “ ANY abortion drugs? issues there?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Daniels
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