Mitch Daniels 2012
If McCain loses this time around, I think I have my candidate for 2012. When Indiana was facing a severe budget shortfall, Mitch Daniels, a budget hawk, backed a tax hike on Indianans making over $100,000. Though the legislature didn’t go along with the proposal, he demonstrated a level of sanity and flexibility that’s admirable. Daniels also made a number of controversial decisions to improve the quality of Indiana’s infrastructure that have since paid off. He expanded healthcare coverage and placed a strong emphasis on prevention. In the Hoosier tradition, he has also sought to increase competition and transparency in the delivery of public services and he’s a firm believer in data-driven — i.e., reality-based — public policy. There’s a lot to like. He’s gone through long spells of extreme unpopularity, yet one senses that he’s won grudging respect from voters. Now, Daniels doesn’t exactly sound like the candidate who will set the base on fire. But perhaps a solid, steady, competent manager, one who turned around Indiana’s public finances, is exactly the face Republicans should be presenting the next time around.
Daniels is also pretty unpopular in Indiana. That doesn’t necessarily disqualify him, of course, but it’s not a great base on which to erect a campaign.
— Zzedar · Nov 2, 11:45 PM · #
You mean, he’s the candidate Mitt Romney could have been, if Romney wasn’t the most off-putting, phony politician in the country.
— Freddie · Nov 3, 12:09 AM · #
Popular enough to have a safe re-election, it seems. (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/governor/in/indiana_governor-937.html)
Though most governors win re-election in this country. (Losing in a primary, as Murkowski did to Palin in Alaska, takes enormous unpopularity.)
— John T. · Nov 3, 03:20 PM · #
“Daniels is also pretty unpopular in Indiana.”
Among moonbats and nutjobs. Watch the election and see how unpopular Mitch is.
— rightwingprof · Nov 3, 05:46 PM · #
I think that Jindal has to be on the ticket, or multiculti is a no sale.
The GOP simply doesn’t have enough “pure” left to carry the country.
— matoko_chan · Nov 3, 06:00 PM · #
I’m an Indiana resident and a big Daniels fan myself. I’d love to see him make a run in 2012 but he has been very public about not seeking any kind of elected office, period, once his second term as governor is done. See:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC9WmB1PNVM
That’s too bad, as he clearly has a prodigious talent for getting things done. People in the strongly Democratic northern and western parts of the state don’t care for him much, but I’d say the margin by which he is about to win re-election dispels the idea that he is “pretty unpopular”.
I’d look for him to be a cabinet appointee, though, in an near-future Republican administration (or perhaps even Democratic, if Obama is serious about being bipartisan).
— Robert Talbert · Nov 3, 07:59 PM · #
Three words—“My Man Mitch”—will forever doom any national aspirations the dude might have. As will, of course, raising taxes.
— DJ · Nov 3, 10:05 PM · #
Daniels has privatized sections of state highways that had allegedly provided stable income (but there were costs, too). That allowed him to fix the budget with a one-off, but that revenue source is now gone, effectively forever. Given that government numbers are not reliable, who knows if the deal was good, bad, or a draw. I do agree “My Man Mitch” is a lame pitch, but I otherwise have nothing against Mitch. I voted for the Libertarian this year, whoever s/he is because the Libertarians, who sadly never win, are least likely to offer “solve” anything, are more likely to dissolve government and its programs, and are the only party that will leave me alone.
— Roger Godby · Nov 4, 03:38 AM · #
Mitch Daniels is not unpopular in Indiana by any means. There will always be haters because of political affiliations, but Daniels has kept every once of support from 2004 (and just won in a landslide this year), and no one can find anything about him to run against. Jill Long Thompson got smoked, badly. Mitch would make a great president or at least cabinet member.
— Nathan Proud · Nov 5, 02:55 PM · #
Daniels is also pretty unpopular in Indiana. That doesn’t necessarily disqualify him, of course, but it’s not a great base on which to erect a campaign.
— Zzedar · Nov 2, 06:45 PM
Zzedar: Where are you getting your information from? Mitch Daniels, a man from the same party as a president with historically low approval ratings, beat his Democratic opponent by 20 points during the democrats “Campaign for Change”. You must be talking only to people who live near the Indiana Toll Road which, until Daniels leased its’ operation to a private consortium for $4 billion, was a money pit funded by Hoosier tax dollars. It was inefficient and poorly kept. That toll road is now a model for other states and, as a result of the lease agreement, Indiana is now able to undertake a plethora of infrastructure improvements without spending any tax dollars on them. Did I forget to mention that there are now more people from the area around the toll road working on it? Yes, that’s right. The privatization of the toll road actually CREATED jobs.
Or you could be talking to people who oppose Daylight Savings. Don’t even get me started on how that has improved the economic climate in Indiana.
I agree. Mitch in 2012 would be a great idea. The only problem is that the Republican Party is going to need someone who can generate Palin-esque enthusiasm. That means that we need to start now, November 5th, 2008, to build his name and get it the minds of concerned conservative voters all across America.
MITCH2012!!!!!
— bmurray · Nov 5, 09:38 PM · #
He was so unpopular that he won re-election by 18 points. Oh that McCain were that unpopular.
The kicker on the toll road lease is that it is providing annual income—and will forever as long as the legislature doesn’t touch the principle. It is being treated as an endowment and only the interest on the investment is being used for road projects. It is working very well.
— Joel · Nov 5, 10:29 PM · #
#
“Daniels is also pretty unpopular in Indiana. That doesn’t necessarily disqualify him, of course, but it’s not a great base on which to erect a campaign.”
— Zzedar
Unpopular in Indiana? The guy just won reelection by half a million votes. Get real. Daniels 2012
— Tyler · Nov 6, 02:00 AM · #
First off we are not Indianans. We are Hoosiers. And Mitch Daniels is unpopular in the Northern part of the state. The reason being because Indiana is like a pinata. All the goodies are in the northern part of the state and the southern part likes to take all the goodies. Privatizing the toll road for example. All the money Indiana is making is going down south. When the northern part of the state is in despair. Our roads are horrible, there are hardly any jobs. And the unemployment rate in Indiana is above 6%. So, yeah you keep telling yourself that Mitch Daniels is a great choice. I’m an independent and this man is a disaster!
— NO MAN MITCH · Nov 7, 09:11 AM · #
I can tell the person who wrote this isn’t from Indiana- it’s Hoosier, never “Indianian”. But we can forgive you on that one! :D Mitch Daniels has been an excellent governor for our state. He’s balanced the budget, fixed our property tax fiasco, increased health insurance for poor children, and applied conservative principals to our problems. He’s the common sense, practical conservative that Washington so desperately needs! My Man Mitch 2012!!!
— Bryt Hiatt · Nov 10, 03:58 AM · #
I am also a Hoosier. Mitch has done some good things and some poor things. His first day in office he immediately terminated the state workers’ union, which is a very Republican thing to do. He has provided access to health insurance for low income uninsured Hoosiers and wants to provide 2 years of free college education at any public university in the state – a very Democratic thing to do. The Toll Road lease to a foreign entity was not very popular statewide according to polls. He dumped much of the states expenses back onto the counties, which caused property taxes to raise an extreme amount. Then he saw the outrage that created, and he raised the state sales tax and was a champion of low property taxes. He made a major issue of daylight savings time, which dominated his first legislative session, and now Hoosiers have to change their clocks twice a year when the old time system was just fine. He ran against a very weak Democrat candidate who had very little money and advertising in 2008. Daniels campaign ran very nice, feel good ads that appeal to Hoosiers. I wouldn’t really call him popular even now, but he is more popular now than he was a couple of years ago when he was very disliked around the state except in suburban Indianapolis. He would like to consolidate all the small schools to save money, even though the small schools usually have the highest test scores in our state. He wants one elected official to run every county and appoint people to all the other offices, doing away with many elected county offices. Mitch is innovative, yes. Popular, no. A decent democrat candidate with money and advertising would have made it a very close election in 2008. Evan Bayh, our U.S. senator, could easily beat Mitch in any election.
— goodrunner · Nov 11, 11:22 PM · #