Free Republic

The very fact that the Arab American Institute is so head over heels for Mitch Daniels automatically sends up a red flag of alarm.Key excerpts from the AAI article: ["...Most recently, some prospective candidates have been engaging in a crass effort to take advantage of the equally ill-conceived fear surrounding what is being called “Shariah creep” (an imaginary ploy allegedly by Muslims to gradually supplant the Constitution with Islamic law)." "For example, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has shut down a Minnesota banking program which allows potential homeowners’ mortgages to be in compliance with basic tenets of Islamic law, despite the program’s initial driving force being...

It is a common complaint that politicians say one thing during the campaign but do something entirely different when governing. Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana is the Benjamin Button of potential Presidential candidates, he turns the whole thing on its head by not talking the talk but walking the walk. I have been extremely critical of Governor Daniels these past months as he has openly advocated for what has been termed “a truce” on the divisive social issues so we can focus on the pressing problem of debt. He put it this way on the Laura Ingraham radio show. “If...

"Governor Daniels showed us he was a man of his word and has stood by the commitments he made during the 2004 pre-election Iftar," stated Alia Shah, Executive Director of MAI. Local Muslims say such political connections are important if their concerns are to be heard in government. But faith, rather than politics, was the key topic Monday night -- the first iftar held at an Indiana governor's home. Several Muslim leaders called it historic. "To be blessed to make prayer at the governor's residence is significant," said Michael Saahir, an imam from the Nur-Allah Islamic Center on the Northside....

Last week, my organization praised the Indiana lawmakers for passing some of the nation’s most significant education reforms. In one of Education Action Group’s weekly newsletters, we said that Indiana’s new voucher program and its decision to lift the cap on charter schools will transform the state’s public education system, to the benefit of all Hoosier families and students. Well, EAG’s audacity in celebrating the idea of school choice generated a number of hateful email responses – from unionized Indiana teachers. But as unhinged as unionized teachers can become, one Indiana educator stooped to new lows. An email from a...

INDIANAPOLIS | Overturning a common law dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes. In a 3-2 decision, Justice Steven David writing for the court said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the officer's entry. "We believe ... a right to resist an unlawful police entry into a home is against public policy and is incompatible with modern Fourth Amendment jurisprudence," David...

INDIANAPOLIS -- When the Indiana Republican Party found itself in a bind this spring, unable to lock down a high-profile keynote speaker for its big annual fundraising dinner, it was Gov. Mitch Daniels himself who came up with the solution: He'd get his wife, Cheri, to do it. It was a bold move, considering that she had never given a high-profile speech before and generally has been reluctant to step onto the political stage. At the same time, her husband has been pondering a 2012 presidential bid (pondering it for the better part of 18 months, in fact) and the...

INDIANAPOLIS -- With 1,100 people chanting "Run Mitch, Run," Gov. Mitch Daniels took the stage here Thursday night and did something he's never done before: He introduced his wife Cheri, and then he turned the microphone over to her to address the sold-out crowd. It was Cheri Daniels' first-ever speech at a big political event in all the years she has been Indiana's First Lady. And with speculation over whether her husband will enter the presidential race now at fever-pitch, her mere presence at the podium for the annual state GOP dinner had everyone searching for clues and hidden meanings....

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The wife of Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is giving few hints about whether her husband will run for president during a rare speech to Republican supporters in Indianapolis. Cheri Daniels has kept a low profile as Indiana's first lady, but she made her biggest speech Thursday to a sold-out crowd of more than 1,000 people at a state party dinner. She joked about her "glamorous" role in the state. She showed the crowd photos of her with sports team mascots, dressing up with the governor for Halloween and milking a cow at the state fair. Mitch Daniels...

Many in the Republican Party are desperately hoping that Indiana governor Mitch Daniels will swoop in and save them from a field of fatally flawed or un-serious presidential candidates. And according to the Huffington Post, Daniels would like to. There's just one thing standing in his way at this point: How he and his wife are going to handle their weird marriage history. "In 1993, Cheri Daniels left her husband with their four daughters and married another man in California. She returned a few years later, reconciled with Daniels, and the two were remarried in 1997." Cheri has never spoken...

INDIANAPOLIS, May 10, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Indiana has become the first state to cut off Planned Parenthood from taxpayer assistance because of its role in the abortion business. Governor Mitch Daniels, a potential contender for the 2012 GOP presidential ticket, signed on Tuesday a measure to block public funds from going to organizations that perform abortions, depriving Planned Parenthood of an estimated $3 million in both state and federal funds. According to the Associated Press, Planned Parenthood of Indiana has promised to take to federal court to seek a temporary restraining order and injunction Tuesday against the new law.

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels says he thinks he could beat President Barack Obama in 2012. He just hasn't decided whether he'll try. The Republican governor said Tuesday his chances of beating Obama would be "quite good," but that's not factoring into his deliberations on a White House run. He spoke to reporters after giving public service awards to state employees. Daniels' comments came a week after he said he wasn't ready to debate Obama on foreign policy. They also appeared to break with a public image he's crafted of a reluctant and self-deprecating politician.

Governor Daniels will sign a bill by the end of the week clamping down on illegal immigration in Indiana. Immigrant advocates, including some self-proclaimed undocumented aliens, protested at the statehouse, with six protesters arrested after staging a sit-in outside Daniels' office. Daniels says he respects the demonstrators' viewpoint, but says the bill is responsible legislation. The proposal threatens the state tax credits of employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens, revokes state contracts with those companies, and denies unemployment benefits to illegal immigrants. It also ramps up penalties for crimes associated with illegal immigration, including fake ID's and the smuggling or...

What if we ended up in a two-man race between this guy and Romney? Which way would grassroots conservatives break?If you think those Gallup numbers on Republicans who support a third party are high now, just wait. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels wants to run for president and is not in the process of convincing himself to do it, a close adviser said. The last hurdle remaining is ongoing discussions between him and his wife, Cheri Daniels, over whether she is ready to face questions about their past.“I think he would like to do it,” the Daniels adviser told The Huffington...

With only 23% hard name recognition (16-7 favorable), why would Mitch Daniels be a significant candidate with so many better known men and women in the potential field? There is, of course, his splendid record as governor of Indiana. He has done everything a governor could do. He took a deficit and produced a surplus with no tax increase (although he flirted with one early in his term but dropped the idea). His education choice legislation is the most advanced in the nation and will offer all Indiana children the ability to use state funds to go to the school...

Report: Mitch Daniels ‘Would Like to Run’ for Prez, Just Waiting on Wife’s OK Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels wants to run for president and is not in the process of convincing himself to do it, a close adviser said. The last hurdle remaining is ongoing discussions between him and his wife, Cheri Daniels, over whether she is ready to face questions about their past. “I think he would like to do it,” the Daniels adviser told The Huffington Post by phone. “I actually think he’d have a decent chance of getting the nomination.” The insight from a source close to...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: There are major rumblings in the news media today about the terrible trouble that the Republican Party finds itself in. Juan Williams was on Fox yesterday saying the Tea Party's finished, it's over with, the Republicans are not on the same page, House and Senate Republicans and even within the House Republican caucus, not on the same page. They're splitting apart because of Medicare, because of Paul Ryan's Medicare proposal. In the Washington Post today, there's a blog published by Chris Cillizza, and it is obvious that both Republican Washington insiders, as well as Democrat power brokers...

Just when the Indiana Legislature gives Governor Mitch Daniels (R-IN) a gift allowing him to sign a bill defunding Planned Parenthood it looked like the truce was over. Well, not quite.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Mitch Daniels signed the nation's broadest private school voucher system into law Thursday, part of sweeping education reforms he championed that won approval in the Indiana Legislature. Lawmakers and supporters joined Daniels at a Statehouse ceremony where he signed the voucher bill and another proposal aimed at expanding charter schools, which are public schools free of many state regulations. The controversial voucher program would allow even middle-class families to use taxpayer money to send their children to private and religious schools. Unlike other systems that are limited to lower-income households, children with special needs or those in...

Bill Kristol wrote on Saturday that he’s heard from sources it’s “likely” Daniels will run. That seemed plausible given Barbour’s decision to stay out and his decision on Friday to sign the Indiana bill defunding Planned Parenthood. If he’s running, though, why would he say something as silly as this? His foreign-policy details are TBD. Daniels said that “it cannot be illegitimate to ask” if some of the country’s military commitments should be unwound, but he has not yet reached any conclusions about which should be—or, at least, any he is willing to share. On Afghanistan he refuses to second-guess...

For all that flak Mitch Daniels took for calling a “truce” on social issues, the Indiana Governor is about to own one of the strongest pro-life records in the country. Daniels will become the first governor in the nation to sign a bill stripping Planned Parenthood of government funding… The lefties in Indiana are going apoplectic, naturally. Daniels’ response to them is simple: Stop doing abortions, you’ll get state funding again. The Indiana bill also bans abortions after 20 weeks, like Iowa is trying to do. Our bill is still being held up by a few state senators. If they...