Mitch Daniels at CPAC. Contender for President?

[Foxfyre]

The 'dark horse' that hasn't gotten much attention but got strong approval from the CPAC audience and some recognition elsewhere is Mitch Daniels, governor of Indiana.

I keep seeing on this or that thread that everybody is tired of the same old retreads being dusted off, spruced up, and run again. Well here's sort of a new face.

Here's the speech. What do you think?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vJ9mcwQ_oI"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vJ9mcwQ_oI[/ame]

 

[Foxfyre]

A number of looks - no comments yet? At least the voting, however sparse it has been, looks better than the poll for Trump.

 

[zzzz]

As a Hoosier I've been living under a Daniel administration for a few years and I have to say that he has guided the state pretty well through these difficult times. Another plus is that he does have some Washington experience with Reagan and Bush II so he knows how Washington works.

But he does not have the star recognition that other candidates have and he does not come from one of the large states. He will probably decide whether to run or not in April or May, plenty of time to become more known.

 

[Foxfyre]

Thank you Z. I was hoping there were some Hoosiers out there who could give us some more up close and personal perceptions of Daniels.

I liked the content of the CPAC speech. He hit on a lot of themes I've been hungry to hear like doing big projects locally without federal funding--you get it done a lot quicker and at about a third of the cost.

He has personality and he knows how to deliver a funny line, but my main concern with him is the lack of....I don't know....star quality? I had to intentionally focus on the speech as the content was good, but the delivery wasn't exactly compelling. It allowed the mind to wander. Others listening here with me sort of tuned him out. Compared to Donald Trump that reeled people in--even those with me who didn't intend to listen found themselves doing so--THAT is star quality.

It was lack of star quality among the many candidates that gave us McCain that almost none of us wanted in 2008.

Can Daniels develop it? I don't know.

 

[Avatar4321]

I know nothing about him. But Im looking at the new roster with fresh eyes. Im interesting, however, i plan to wait till everyone is in to make any decisions. as far as I know only one person has even announced intentions and that's Herman Cain.

However, I just looked it up and apparently there are two more people who have filed or have exploritory committees:

Fred Karger from California - No clue who he is. But it looks like he is gay marriage activist trying to use every means possible to attack those who supported prop 8 in California. Doesnt look like someone for me. But ill check it out more.

Jimmy McMillian from New York - Former registered Democrat not Running Republican and the Founder of the Rent is too Damn High Party. I think he might be interesting to watch.

 

[Foxfyre]

Daniels says he won't announce until April if he decides to run. I'm wanting everybody to commit to having 'fresh eyes' in this election. If we trot out the same old stale, bruised, and bloodied stable of candidates, we"ll have Obama for four more years.

 

[LadyGunSlinger]

He's a stinking RINO- Came out of the Bush Administration. NO THANKS. Don't we have enough talented people in this nation without having to recycle the same stinking losers over and over?? What's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. Will America ever learn?

 

[Foxfyre]

He's a stinking RINO- Came out of the Bush Administration. NO THANKS. Don't we have enough talented people in this nation without having to recycle the same stinking losers over and over?? What's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. Will America ever learn?

But if you write off everybody associated with the Bush administration as a RINO, you would be writing off a lot of very good people. Some of them absolutely were. He certainly got some very bad advice. Did he get bad advice from Daniels though.

Here is Bloomberg's Resume of Daniels in 1991

Resume: Mitch Daniels

AGE
52

HOMETOWN
Indianapolis

FAMILY
Married; four daughters, 14 to 21

EDUCATION
B.A., Princeton, '71; J.D., Georgetown law school, '79

POLITICAL EXPERIENCE
Fresh from college, Daniels made a name for himself as an aide to Richard Lugar, Indianapolis mayor and later U.S. Senator (R-Ind.). Served as director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee under Lugar in 1983-84. In the second Reagan Administration, he was political director and head of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs but quit after clashes with Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan.

PRIVATE-SECTOR EXPERIENCE
In 1987, he became COO of the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank. Three years later, he joined Eli Lilly, where his last post was senior vice-president for corporate strategy and policy.

HOBBIES
Avid golfer. Huge fan of the Dodgers and Redskins.

TOP QUALITIES
Smart, politically savvy, blunt, and straight as an arrow.

THE RAP ON DANIELS
Insufficient experience on budget matters. Can be caustic at times. Liberals think he's too conservative and too tied to pharmaceutical interests.
BW Online | May 21, 2001 | Resume: Mitch Daniels

From Politico recently:

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. …

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.”

He has cut spending, cut taxes, leased the state’s toll road to a private company for billions and expanded health insurance and prescription drug access in a market-friendly way. The result is an approval rating of 70 percent, according to one recent survey, placing him among the country’s most popular governors.
Mitch Daniels considering 2012 Presidential bid? « Hot Air

And from the same Hot Air piece that posted the above:

Undoubtedly, Republicans need to offer someone from outside of Washington in a season of discontent with Beltway business as usual. The strongest candidates will be former governors like Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, and perhaps Haley Barbour. Mitch Daniels may have the strongest resume from among them, as Martin details, and perhaps also the most unequivocally conservative track record as an executive.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that Daniels is the Un-Obama also in the charisma department. He has a strong grasp of policy, but as with most policy wonks, has trouble when it comes to electrifying the masses from the stump. That hasn’t hindered him in Indiana, much like a similar problem didn’t keep Tommy Thompson from multiple statewide wins in Wisconsin. However, on the national stage, it could prove to be an obstacle, as voters like to identify personally with presidential candidates.

 

[zzzz]

Voters like star quality. They like to be led into the abyss by someone they adore ignoring the substance for the glitter.

 

[Foxfyre]

Voters like star quality. They like to be led into the abyss by someone they adore ignoring the substance for the glitter.

Well, in my never to be considered humble opinion, that sure seems to be what the Democrats and most Independents did in 2008.

Did they learn their lesson?

Could somebody like Daniels, assuming his pedigree is as good as it looks, get a good advisor/coach to increase his curb appeal?

 

[JohnnyApplesack]

I really liked seeing TweenGunSlinger piping in with some good old fashioned Bagger crazy on this thread. Daniels has the same problem three-term GOBP senator Bob Bennet and four term House Rep Mike Castle had courtesy of the GOBP's newly born Lunatic Faction (Michele Bachmann, Caribou Barbie, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh being the Board of Directors) in 2010. Crazed baggers would hound Daniels on the campaign trail, and dig up every vote he cast funding 'the beast'. It's like an autoimmune disease attacking the host body. Messed up, but pretty enjoyable for Dems/Indy's to watch from the sidelines.

The 2012 GOBP primaries are gonna be one continuous, historic freak show. Can't wait for that impending Romney/Palin smackdown, with nutjobs like Huckabee and Bachmann chiming in.....gonna be a hoot!

 

[LadyGunSlinger]

I really liked seeing TweenGunSlinger piping in with some good old fashioned Bagger crazy on this thread. Daniels has the same problem three-term GOBP senator Bob Bennet and four term House Rep Mike Castle had courtesy of the GOBP's newly born Lunatic Faction (Michele Bachmann, Caribou Barbie, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh being the Board of Directors) in 2010. Crazed baggers would hound Daniels on the campaign trail, and dig up every vote he cast funding 'the beast'. It's like an autoimmune disease attacking the host body. Messed up, but pretty enjoyable for Dems/Indy's to watch from the sidelines.

The 2012 GOBP primaries are gonna be one continuous, historic freak show. Can't wait for that impending Romney/Palin smackdown, with nutjobs like Huckabee and Bachmann chiming in.....gonna be a hoot!

Oh look, it's Johnny Nutsack with his RINO hump in tow. You tout Castle and Bennet??? LMAO!! Just goes to show you how liberal you are and precisely the reason we're in this fucking mess- if you want to vote for a liberal defect to the fucking democrat party. Conservatives distinguish themselves by many things.. One is not supporting DingleBarry in his socialist drive to destroy capitalism jackass. Mike Castle was one of the key votes in Congress that allowed the Obama Financial reform TO PASS and doesn't support repealing Obama's Marxist healthcare scheme.

 

[LadyGunSlinger]

He's a stinking RINO- Came out of the Bush Administration. NO THANKS. Don't we have enough talented people in this nation without having to recycle the same stinking losers over and over?? What's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. Will America ever learn?

But if you write off everybody associated with the Bush administration as a RINO, you would be writing off a lot of very good people. Some of them absolutely were. He certainly got some very bad advice. Did he get bad advice from Daniels though.

Here is Bloomberg's Resume of Daniels in 1991

Resume: Mitch Daniels

AGE
52

HOMETOWN
Indianapolis

FAMILY
Married; four daughters, 14 to 21

EDUCATION
B.A., Princeton, '71; J.D., Georgetown law school, '79

POLITICAL EXPERIENCE
Fresh from college, Daniels made a name for himself as an aide to Richard Lugar, Indianapolis mayor and later U.S. Senator (R-Ind.). Served as director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee under Lugar in 1983-84. In the second Reagan Administration, he was political director and head of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs but quit after clashes with Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan.

PRIVATE-SECTOR EXPERIENCE
In 1987, he became COO of the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank. Three years later, he joined Eli Lilly, where his last post was senior vice-president for corporate strategy and policy.

HOBBIES
Avid golfer. Huge fan of the Dodgers and Redskins.

TOP QUALITIES
Smart, politically savvy, blunt, and straight as an arrow.

THE RAP ON DANIELS
Insufficient experience on budget matters. Can be caustic at times. Liberals think he's too conservative and too tied to pharmaceutical interests.
BW Online | May 21, 2001 | Resume: Mitch Daniels

From Politico recently:

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. …

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.”

He has cut spending, cut taxes, leased the state’s toll road to a private company for billions and expanded health insurance and prescription drug access in a market-friendly way. The result is an approval rating of 70 percent, according to one recent survey, placing him among the country’s most popular governors.
Mitch Daniels considering 2012 Presidential bid? « Hot Air

And from the same Hot Air piece that posted the above:

Undoubtedly, Republicans need to offer someone from outside of Washington in a season of discontent with Beltway business as usual. The strongest candidates will be former governors like Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, and perhaps Haley Barbour. Mitch Daniels may have the strongest resume from among them, as Martin details, and perhaps also the most unequivocally conservative track record as an executive.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that Daniels is the Un-Obama also in the charisma department. He has a strong grasp of policy, but as with most policy wonks, has trouble when it comes to electrifying the masses from the stump. That hasn’t hindered him in Indiana, much like a similar problem didn’t keep Tommy Thompson from multiple statewide wins in Wisconsin. However, on the national stage, it could prove to be an obstacle, as voters like to identify personally with presidential candidates.

He's a straight up RINO who has stated theres no room at the table for social conservatives. The conservative Platform makes abortion CENTRAL and separates us from the party of death. He will not have my support or any social conservative.

 

[Foxfyre]

He's a straight up RINO who has stated theres no room at the table for social conservatives. The conservative Platform makes abortion CENTRAL and separates us from the party of death. He will not have my support or any social conservative.

Well I appreciate the input LGS as we need to know the good and the bad and everything in between. Though personally staunchly pro life, I am more of a Tea Party conservative that wants all social issues to be left to the states and local communities and, at the Federal level, I focus mostly on the fiscal policy at home and abroad.

Now that you mention it, Daniels didnt get into the social issues in his speech, and that will be a concern for many.

So we'll keep watching and learning. I just hope the cream instead of the curds rises to the top in this election cycle.

 

[LadyGunSlinger]

He's a straight up RINO who has stated theres no room at the table for social conservatives. The conservative Platform makes abortion CENTRAL and separates us from the party of death. He will not have my support or any social conservative.

Well I appreciate the input LGS as we need to know the good and the bad and everything in between. Though personally staunchly pro life, I am more of a Tea Party conservative that wants all social issues to be left to the states and local communities and, at the Federal level, I focus mostly on the fiscal policy at home and abroad.

Now that you mention it, Daniels didnt get into the social issues in his speech, and that will be a concern for many.

So we'll keep watching and learning. I just hope the cream instead of the curds rises to the top in this election cycle.

As always, I respect your opinion and understand where you're coming from Foxy.

 

[Claudette]

I like what I've seen of Daniels.

Hope he decides to run.

 

[zzzz]

I think if the economy tanks again due to increased food and energy costs, that the social conservatives will start looking at their pocketbooks more than social issues and I think that is where Daniels may make his inroads. The fiscal conservatives like him because he has proven (unlike some others) that he can get things done. All you have to do is look at what Indiana has done economically comapred to Illionios, Ohio, and Michigan these last few years. All of us had manufacturing losses, yet Indiana kept a balanced budget. Yes there were sacrifices that had to made and are still being made but in the end we are in the black, not the red. Daniels may be the person who can make a difference in Washington. But then again, the Federal deficit machine is like a mountain and one person with a little pick is not going to move a mountain.

 

[JohnnyApplesack]

I really liked seeing TweenGunSlinger piping in with some good old fashioned Bagger crazy on this thread. Daniels has the same problem three-term GOBP senator Bob Bennet and four term House Rep Mike Castle had courtesy of the GOBP's newly born Lunatic Faction (Michele Bachmann, Caribou Barbie, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh being the Board of Directors) in 2010. Crazed baggers would hound Daniels on the campaign trail, and dig up every vote he cast funding 'the beast'. It's like an autoimmune disease attacking the host body. Messed up, but pretty enjoyable for Dems/Indy's to watch from the sidelines.

The 2012 GOBP primaries are gonna be one continuous, historic freak show. Can't wait for that impending Romney/Palin smackdown, with nutjobs like Huckabee and Bachmann chiming in.....gonna be a hoot!

Oh look, it's Johnny Nutsack with his RINO hump in tow. You tout Castle and Bennet??? LMAO!! Just goes to show you how liberal you are and precisely the reason we're in this fucking mess- if you want to vote for a liberal defect to the fucking democrat party. Conservatives distinguish themselves by many things.. One is not supporting DingleBarry in his socialist drive to destroy capitalism jackass. Mike Castle was one of the key votes in Congress that allowed the Obama Financial reform TO PASS and doesn't support repealing Obama's Marxist healthcare scheme.

Jesus Keerist you're an idiot, tweeny.

Who the fuck is 'touting' Castle and Bennet?

You have the reading comprehension of a houseplant.

Now go watch your hero Beck or send Caribou a check, stupid.

wow

 

[Toro]

The 'dark horse' that hasn't gotten much attention but got strong approval from the CPAC audience and some recognition elsewhere is Mitch Daniels, governor of Indiana.

I keep seeing on this or that thread that everybody is tired of the same old retreads being dusted off, spruced up, and run again. Well here's sort of a new face.

Here's the speech. What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vJ9mcwQ_oI

I agree. Someone coming from the governorship who has managed his state well will be an appealing candidate, especially if he/she can appeal to moderates. Daniels could fit the bill.

The last poll I saw had Huckabee at the top of prospective GOP nominees. The Republican Party is in serious jeopardy if the Huckster is leading the pack.

 

[Foxfyre]

The 'dark horse' that hasn't gotten much attention but got strong approval from the CPAC audience and some recognition elsewhere is Mitch Daniels, governor of Indiana.

I keep seeing on this or that thread that everybody is tired of the same old retreads being dusted off, spruced up, and run again. Well here's sort of a new face.

Here's the speech. What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vJ9mcwQ_oI

I agree. Someone coming from the governorship who has managed his state well will be an appealing candidate, especially if he/she can appeal to moderates. Daniels could fit the bill.

The last poll I saw had Huckabee at the top of prospective GOP nominees. The Republican Party is in serious jeopardy if the Huckster is leading the pack.

Unless one has already put the kiss of death on him, Huckabee is likable though. He is convincing when he speaks. Probably his affiliation with Fox News is the scarlett letter so far as the Left is concerned. And I don't think Huckabee gets much Tea Party support with his liberally lenient views on illegal immigration, but he does have some solidly conservative views too. I like Huckabee very much, but like you I don't think he is 'the one' for 2012.

Watching several different boards, I'm thinking the smart money is starting to shift to Romney. I am uncomfortable with that mostly because Romney frankly just isn't as likable as some of the others. He comes across as too stiff, too slick, too chiseled or something. I don't know if his handlers can create a new image for him enough to reel in enough of the "I vote for him because I like him best' voters.

None of the governors are going to have stellar records on everything and the opposition will find something to use to demonize everybody. LGS for instance is adamently opposed to Daniels and sees him as a RINO. Somebody else will no doubt see him as a rabid fanatical evil conservative. Since I hadn't even really heard about him until his CPAC speech, I listened with no preconceived notions or prejudices and liked what I heard.

But then we all know that one good speech does not a good president make, yes? I point to the current occupant of the White House as proof of that.

So I'm still doing my homework and trying to figure out whose band wagon I'll jump on for 2012.