Indiana governor Mitch Daniels met with a group of journalists assembled by Bloomberg View in New York City today. Here’s what I picked up from the meeting:
His conservatism is not combative. Daniels was pressed repeatedly about the role of the Bush tax cuts in building today’s federal debt, about the failure of his fellow Republicans to recognize the need for tax increases, about the nuttiness of his party’s birthers, and about its general “reality-denial problem.” Daniels politely disagreed on the Bush tax cuts, said that Republicans weren’t the only people with nutty ideas, and suggested that Obama’s budget was “disappointing” in its denial of reality. But there was no forceful pushback of the type one might have gotten from other conservatives.
He is passionate about cutting entitlement payouts to the affluent. “Why are we sending Warren Buffett a welfare check?” Universal programs have been defended as a means of building social solidarity. What Daniels sees, however, is “cynicism.” The theory that well-off voters won’t support programs to help the poor unless they get a cut themselves is “politically manipulative”: “People are led, still are led, to believe things that aren’t true.” He adds, “The assumption it makes about the American people”—that they are purely self-interested—“is very unfair.”
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 the decisions of the president, to whose greater access to information he defers. On Libya he says only that he has not seen the case for intervention made. One gets the impression of someone who is much more cautious about foreign intervention than Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty, but also cautious about saying so. He was asked if he were ready to debate President Obama on foreign policy. “Probably not.” (He is candid.)
His ambivalence about running seems real. “I encouraged four different people to run,” he says, and failed. (He wouldn’t name them but Haley Barbour appears to have been one of them.) At one point he used the words “if I talk myself into this” when discussing a run of his own. Why might he run? “I believe the country’s at a very perilous point arithmetically. And I haven’t yet—still hope to—seen anyone else step up to it. . . . So far my brethren have been a little hesitant.”
But he’s leaning toward running. That’s just the impression I got. If he does run, he says, there will be no exploratory committee, “nothing cute.” “We’ll just get on about it.”
This is the one Republican candidate that I can take seriously and probably live with if Obama were to lose. However, I don't hold out much hope that he can win the nomination.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDaniels is my first choice to be the GOP nominee, because I believe he'd make the best president and will overperform expectations as a candidate.
That said, I worry greatly that he has Fred Thompson-itis. He's a candidate who seems to be running (*if* he runs) out of a sense of duty rather than a sense of desire. That's honorable, as we need more leaders who have less of a political appetite. On the other hand, it's usually not a recipe for a successful campaign, as Thompson proved.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOn the verge of what? Telling us he's not ready to debate Obama on foreign policy?
The Bushies, including Tokyo Rove, are going to be behind this guy big time and that guarantees he will not get my vote in the Republican primary.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseTo me, Daniels is much more interesting that people give him credit for. I listened to him a few times, and there was very little BS and he seemed logical and honest, even if that is not going to win him applause. I am definitively considering him.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnother Republican who appears more able to condemn and criticize fellow Republicans than Democrats who long ago declared war on anything conservative. Stand up and fight for us and our values.
No thanks, Rubio/West is my ticket.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs a "natural born Hoosier" (even though my family moved away when I was a kid), I've followed Daniels' career with some interest. He has many qualities we should seek in our next president...not the least of which is a recognition that the fiscal situation facing the country is a crisis of existential proportions.
Personally, I wish he had a bit more "Chris Christie" style combativeness in him. Some time, he seems determined to be the meekest guy in the room. I don't get that.
For example, when he was interviewed on Meet the Press some weeks ago, he kept saying things along the lines of "our situation is dire, unless someone can convince me otherwise, we need to do something about it". Why the proviso? Why the hedge? If things are dire (and I believe they are), just say so. There's no reason to leave the back door ajar just in case.
In any event, it may be that his communications style is just right for this race. He is the ultimate polar opposite to Obama: Lots of experience, no charisma. Maybe that will work for him.
I don't see any other candidates out there currently in the Republican field that could earn my vote. I'd be pleased to give Daniels some serious consideration.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDon't underestimate this guy. His accomplishments here in Indiana are extraordinarily impressive, both in terms of implementing policy and in aiding the election of fellow conservatives. And he exudes competence.
I'm curious who else he tried to recruit. My guess would be Haley Barbour, Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney and Rick Perry. Mostly because those are the only candidates who aren't running but who have credentials comparable to Mitch's.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@ bobbymike
Ahh your a stickler for regional balance I see. West? Are you kidding me? Even the GOP in Florida knows that he in insane and thats why they are going to redistrict him right out of a seat.
What makes you think he would be a team player as VP? As a freshman, he tells Boehner to 'come to Jesus' in the middle of a political war. This is not a man I want standing behind me.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDaniels epitomizes the saying that the person most capable of doing the job of president is probably a person who is sane and mature enough to realize he doesn't want it.
That said, Daniels always strikes me as pleasantly demur and humble when he speaks - not the type of person who is going to try to puff himself up. I wouldn't be surprised if he's playing coy in public while building his campaign in the background. (and the recent Real Clear Politics story indicates as much...)
But if he decides to run, I expect him to be incredibly effective. This is a person who won by a huge margin in typically conservative Indiana, even as Obama took the state. He has a proven record of responsible management, and can credibly make the case that a conservative government is also a more effective and more fair government.
I think he would be a fantastic candidate in, frankly, a very weak field. I would love to have the opportunity to vote for him.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Just the fact that a rabid leftist like "SmithersJones" endorses Daniels tells me everything I need to know about Daniels' conservative credentials.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhy send anyone a welfare check?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHis conservatism is not combative?
Why, he sounds like the perfect candidate for National Review and the Republican Party!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFantastic!
Now we will have all the ingredients for a wonk salad. We call call it the "Fighting Abacus" Salad. No peppers, no slice, no after-taste. Tastes like sharpened pencils. Sorry no charisma either.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHe's passionate about cutting entitlements for the affluent.
That sounds like a great thing to be passionate about. Of course the rhetoric will be about Warren Buffet and Bill Gates...but what will end up happening is that people who end up earning several hundred thousand a year at the end o of their careers will get the shaft. Those folks won't, by and large, have the money necessary to fund their own retirement...thanks to punitive taxes that take over half of their income once they finally start earning a lot. Many of them will be in debt or not have much invested for retirement - from trying to earn a lot over the years (risking money) and trying to provide their families with decent standards of living. They'll end up living the same as people who never earned much money or put anything away. Government will be the greater leveler. If people don't get to collect full benefits...then they should be able to opt out.
Privatizing entitlements or doing away with them for everyone but the really, really poor is the only fair way.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo if Jeb Bush doesn't work out (and he won't), or Romney gets the vapors (which he will), Daniels will be the goto guy for RINOs everywhere. Be still my beating heart.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBlackhawk, yours is one pathetic post.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBlackhawk - So we send a bunch of freshman R's to Washington and when they stand up to the leadership they're "insane". Is that a logical way to approach party disagreements?
And I would want West in front of me as he is a true leader and patriot.
But for the sake of party unity I will change my ticket to Ryan/Rubio with West as Director of Homeland Security :)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy problem with Daniels is he just doesn't have the fire in his belly, and it shows. We might find it endearing that he looks at the Presidency with a sense of duty, but most voters want to give the job to someone who really wants it.
Pawlenty brings everything to the table that Daniels does, but he has an even better record when it comes to tax increases. It's much harder to be a conservative in a blue state like Minnesota than it is in a red one like Indiana.
Pawlenty also comes from a "must win" state for Obama, while Indiana is not even on the radar. If Minnesota goes Red, Obama can't get reelected. Period.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs a conservative, what's not to like about a guy who calls Dick Lugar his political hero? Wake me up in 2013 after Obama takes the oath again.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDaniels is a very good candidate.
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