PrairiePundit

National Journal: Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels attacked President Obama on Sunday, characterizing his first term as a “failed presidency” and saying the president was “AWOL” on debt reduction. The election will be “a choice between [Obama] and a future of certain decline and indebtedness, and the Republican Party," Daniels said on CNN's  State of the Union . Daniels, a former head of the Office of Management and Budget who was tapped to deliver the Republican response to Obama's State of the Union address this year, called the current economic climate "the worse recovery ever from a serious recession." "History says the deeper the down, the sharper the up," he said. "It should've been a very vigorous" recovery. Daniels went on to squarely blame Obama, saying the president has not gone far enough on issues like debt reduction. “The president went totally AWOL on this largest of subjects,” Daniels said. ...  He also raised other i...

This speech has strong arguments and specific programs to improve the economy.  It maybe the most memorable response to a State of the Union address I have heard. ... "The routes back to an America of promise, and to a solvent America that can pay its bills and protect its vulnerable, start in the same place. The only way up for those suffering tonight, and the only way out of the dead end of debt into which we have driven, is a private economy that begins to grow and create jobs, real jobs, at a much faster rate than today.   "Contrary to the President's constant disparagement of people in business, it's one of the noblest of human pursuits. The late Steve Jobs - what a fitting name he had - created more of them than all those stimulus dollars the President borrowed and blew. Out here in Indiana, when a businessperson asks me what he can do for our state, I say 'First, make money. Be successful. If you make a profit, you'll have something left to hire so...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife Phillip Kline: Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has told supporters that he is not running for president, citing the wishes of his family. Politico reports that in a midnight email to his supporters, Daniels wrote: "The counsel and encouragement I received from important citizens like you caused me to think very deeply about becoming a national candidate. In the end, I was able to resolve every competing consideration but one, but that, the interests and wishes of my family, is the most important consideration of all. If I have disappointed you, I will always be sorry…If you feel that this was a non-courageous or unpatriotic decision, I understand and will not attempt to persuade you otherwise. I only hope that you will accept my sincerity in the judgment I reached." "Many thanks for your help and input during this period of reflection. Please stay in touch if you see ways in which an obscure Midwestern governor might make a construc...

Image via Wikipedia Chris Cizzilla: At first glance, Mitch Daniels is not someone who engenders political swooning. Shortish, balding and a self-described policy wonk, the Indiana governor is not who you would picture if asked to describe a presidential candidate from central casting. And yet, Daniels has become the hottest thing in Republican political circles of late by doing one simple thing: waiting. Daniels has, for months now, been publicly mulling a presidential candidacy. And, as he has remained on the fence, almost everyone else in the race has jumped off of it — leaving a field that many GOP voters and strategists believe is wanting. That sentiment has turned Daniels into the man of the moment as, in recent weeks, he has been publicly praised far and wide by prominent Republicans. During an appearance on the “Today” show last week, House Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) offered some unprompted praise of Daniels — calling him a “person with a track record of reform in his...

Image via Wikipedia Erin McPike: 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 potential candidate himself has hinted that Cheri's the one person who could stop him -- because she's been described as uncomfortable about the intrusion such a campaign would have on their lives. In recent months, though, Cheri Daniels has been upping her appearances, and at the meticulously timed and well-choreographed dinner before a record audience of 1,100 on Thursday evening, she strode...

Image via Wikipedia NY Times: Republican leaders, activists and donors, anxious that the party’s initial presidential field could squander a chance to capture grass-roots energy and build a strong case against President Obama at the outset of the 2012 race, are stepping up appeals for additional candidates to jump in, starting with Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana. “I’m getting letters from all over the damn country, and some of them are pretty moving,” Mr. Daniels said in an interview last week at the Capitol in Indianapolis, where his friends believe he is inching closer to exploring a candidacy. He added, “It can’t help but affect you.” The first contests of the primary are about eight months away, and most of the candidates have yet to fully open their campaigns. But some party leaders worry that Republicans are making a bad first impression by appearing tentative about their prospects against Mr. Obama and allowing Donald J. Trump to grab headlines in the news vacuum of the ra...

Image via Wikipedia David Shribman: Politics has its moments, and right now Mitch Daniels is having his. Daniels is a former top executive at Eli Lilly and Co., a onetime director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, the current governor of Indiana and a possible Republican candidate for president. He is having a good winter, in the way some decorated British heroes between 1939 and 1945 had a good war that prepared them for a fast track in politics and business. Nobody, including Daniels, knows whether he actually is going to run for president and nobody, especially Daniels, knows whether he will be a sensation or a dud if he decides to do so.... But right now a lot of smart people think that Daniels -- a cost-cutter who seems to have the vision of an actuary grafted onto the character of a biker -- is the man to take on Barack Obama, the mountain of federal debt, the looming Social Security and Medicare crises, and just about everything short of a potential NFL la...

Image via Wikipedia NY Times: Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and other officials who are pushing to eliminate or weaken collective bargaining by government employees say their goal is to save millions of dollars and increase government’s flexibility to run its operations. The experience of a nearby state, Indiana, where Gov. Mitch Daniels eliminated bargaining for state employees six years ago, shows just how much is at stake, both for the government and for workers. His 2005 executive order has had a sweeping impact: no raises for state employees in some years, the elimination of seniority preferences and a far greater freedom to consolidate state operations or outsource them to private companies. Evaluating the success of the policy depends on where you sit. “It’s helped us in a thousand ways. It was absolutely central to our turnaround here,” Mr. Daniels said in an interview. Without union contracts to slow him down, he said, it has been easy for him to merge the procureme...

Image via Wikipedia Neil King, Jr., WSJ: Pundits say he's too short, at 5-foot-7, and lacks the requisite pizzazz to be elected president. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels believes he faces a taller challenge as he ponders a White House run: Could voters warm to his message that the country is doomed unless it slashes its debt and radically revamps the popular Social Security and Medicare programs? In any other year, a campaign platform that gloomy would render a politician toxic. Today, with concerns over the nation's fiscal health on the rise, the Indiana Republican's wonkish bravado is making some think he is a good fit for the moment. If the time is indeed right for Mr. Daniels's get-tough message, the angry budget standoffs in states such as Wisconsin, Ohio and New Jersey are also shining a new light on his credentials as a messenger. Mr. Daniels rescinded collective-bargaining rights for state employees six years ago—long before Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker caus...

Image via Wikipedia Politico: Mitch Daniels, the man they call “The Blade” from his budget office days, attempted to cut through some late-night drowsiness Friday to deliver a message of fiscal austerity. “Our morbidly obese federal government needs not just behavior modification but bariatric surgery,” he told the applauding masses at CPAC 's annual dinner. Continue Reading Daniels warned of the great danger posed by the mounting federal debt, or “the new Red Menace, this time consisting of ink,” as he dubbed it. Left intact, the new health care law will “engulf private markets and produce a single-payer system, and America’s fiscal distress will result in a loss of world leadership," he said. “If our nation goes over a financial Niagara, we won't have much strength and, eventually, we won't have peace,” he said. “We are currently borrowing the entire defense budget from foreign investors. Within a few years, we will be spending more on interest payments than...

Image via Wikipedia Jonathon Martin: If pundits and columnists represented the GOP base, Mitch Daniels would be the odds-on favorite for the presidential nomination in 2012. The Indiana governor has been showered with favorable coverage from political thinkers and analysts in recent months, most of which heaped praise on his thoughtful and principled approach to governing while celebrating his serious yet down-to-earth mien. “Of all the Republicans talking about the deficit these days, Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana, has arguably the most credibility,” claimed The New York Times’ David Leonhardt in an Indianapolis-datelined economics column recently. ... But it’s not just his policy outlook that titillates the elites. The diminutive Hoosier has nurtured a profile as a mature politician whose outlook extends beyond the next news cycle and whose demeanor exudes seriousness. As David Broder wrote last fall: “[H]is record of accomplishment is dazzling.” He went to ...