Every newspaper and blog in the vicinity of Indiana has this, so I’m not sure I’ll add any value with my own entry. But, for sake of posterity, I’ll go ahead and link to Eric Bradner’s piece in the Evansville Courier Press indicating that Gov. Daniels won’t be running for President. And this time, I guess, he really, really means it.
Though Gov. Mitch Daniels wanted to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2012, his family gave the idea a firm and final veto, he announced late Saturday night.
I did find this paragraph amusing:
In the end, he said, the hopes of Republicans who hoped his message of fiscal conservatism – he called the nation’s $14 trillion debt the “new red menace” – could give them a serious alternative to President Barack Obama were outweighed by his family’s opposition.
Given Gov. Daniels’ not insignificant role in helping to create that “red menace” as part of the Bush administration, it would have perhaps been difficult for him to credibly run as the savior to defeat that menace.
In any event, with Gov. Daniels apparently out of the national race, I can probably start gearing up to recall his administration wistfully as a Pence administration shows me what disagreeable policy really looks like.
Update Also, Brian Howey got a tiny bit burned on the timing of this column about a possible Daniels Presidential run that ran alongside the news that Gov. Daniels would not run. According to Howey, “At this writing, there are a cornucopia of clues pointing to a run.”
Ugh. I don’t even want to think about a Pence administration. If that comes to pass I’m going to start looking at other states to move to.
Perhaps now that Governor Daniels has decided not to throw his hat into the Presidential ring, he won’t feel the need to leave behind his admonition to the GOP that it put divisive social issues on the back burner. That wouldn’t have gone down very will in Iowa or South Carolina.
But now he’s not running for anything, inclluding re-election as Indiana’s chief executive, and in his last 18 months in office can fulfill the role of being its concience and that of his party.
He has no legal role in the (mis-named) “Marriage Protection Amendment” to the Bill of Rights in Indiana’s Constitution. Nonetheless, he can provide a very useful role in his party’s delibrations concerning the issues involved. While few if any noticed, lawmakers including Senator Brandt Hershman were apparently duped into embracing something far different from what they had started out with in 2005-2007. Then Senator Hershman, joined by your Lafayette attorney colleague Roger William Bennet, testified that the measure was aimed only at the courts, and not the General Assembly.
Recently, on March 20th, Bennet was brave enough to decry what’s been done to the measure he once testified in favor of before a House committtee. He said: “What puzzles me is why the [current] sponsors put in the dubious/odious parts”, suggesting that the motivation seemed to be linked to antigay violence. Check it out.
Now unshakled from the obligation to court the more extreme part of his party’s base, perhaps he’ll consider joiniing Bennet in his sentiments. Clearly Bennet still opposes same sex marriage, but his comments reflect the innner thoughts of many members of the GOP who really wonder why a once “moderate” measure has been hijacked. Governor Daniels would do well to ponder that in the name of fairness to all of Indiana’s citizens.
Ed–Vermont is looking good. Gorgeous scenery and now health care. Maybe if all of us who refuse to live in Pence-land move en masse, we can get a great deal on some Vermont real estate.
Howey called him a reformer? That really reminded me that my connotation of the word reformer and its actual use are not synonymous. I always thought reformers did good policy….
Probably it just means to form into something different. But, yes, typically “reform” has positive connotations. Reminds me of something my high school history teacher mentioned. “Today’s reforms are tomorrow’s corruption.” Perhaps Gov. Daniels is just speeding up the process.
Daniels is smart as a fox. He sees the political writing on the wall and realized that instead of doing all of the work and raising all the money to throw it all against Obama in 2012, he should hunker down and wait.
Let’s face it, unless something really crazy happens, Obama IS going to win 2012, if anything just due to inertia.
I think Daniels could run in 2016, when Obama has left, the country is feeling good, and the Dems don’t have anyone to take over the mantel. The country will be even more ready for change and will have forgotten most of the horrors of the Bush years. Just like they did in 2000…