Dav
DP Veteran
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Mitch Daniels is the governor of Indiana, who recently made news for saying that there should be a "truce" on social issues while the focus shifts to solving more pressing fiscal issues. I thought this was pretty obvious (and the entire point of the Tea Party movement), but apparently that's a pretty gutsy thing to say in the GOP and he's now getting a lot of crap for it. He hasn't backed down though:
Mitch Daniels is dead serious about his 'truce' | Washington Examiner
His Wiki article is here: Mitch Daniels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
His approval ratings are around 70%, and he seems to be known for cutting spending and making government more efficient, which would be just what people are looking for right now, though I haven't looked further into any of that. He's said that he's "kept the door open" for a 2012 run, which very few people have actually said.
I don't know why pretty much the only people who get mentioned as possibilities for the GOP nomination are Palin, Romney, and Huckabee (and sometimes Gingrich). I'd bet good money that it won't be any of those people. They might be the only ones getting publicity now, but if I were a presidential hopeful right now, I'd want to avoid publicity as much as possible. The publicized possible candidates are getting torn to shreds and few people really want any given one. The best strategy is to just get your name thrown out there as a possibility, then wait until the bloodshed ends before gaining major name recognition. We'll probably see a whole new slate of talked-about contenders after the 2010 midterms come to a close.
And indeed, Daniels called me to say that he's dead serious about the need for the next president to declare a truce. "It wasn't something I just blurted out," he told me. "It's something I've been thinking about for a while."
He's emphasized the need to focus like a laser beam on the existential threats facing the country -- the two big issues he's previously identified being the war on terror and the country's precarious fiscal position. "We're going to need a lot more than 50.1 percent of the country to come together to keep from becoming Greece," he said.
He did, however, want to clarify that he's not just singling out controversial social issues. "I'm talking about all divisive issues," he said. Clear and unified priorities are the only way he sees the country rallying around common purposes.
When I pressed him, Daniels did seem to concede that perhaps he hadn't taken into account how the D.C. media would respond to his remarks by playing up the controversy. But Daniels repeatedly affirmed that this is a serious governing proposal, not an electoral strategy or a case where a politician tells people what he thinks they want to hear.
Mitch Daniels is dead serious about his 'truce' | Washington Examiner
His Wiki article is here: Mitch Daniels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
His approval ratings are around 70%, and he seems to be known for cutting spending and making government more efficient, which would be just what people are looking for right now, though I haven't looked further into any of that. He's said that he's "kept the door open" for a 2012 run, which very few people have actually said.
I don't know why pretty much the only people who get mentioned as possibilities for the GOP nomination are Palin, Romney, and Huckabee (and sometimes Gingrich). I'd bet good money that it won't be any of those people. They might be the only ones getting publicity now, but if I were a presidential hopeful right now, I'd want to avoid publicity as much as possible. The publicized possible candidates are getting torn to shreds and few people really want any given one. The best strategy is to just get your name thrown out there as a possibility, then wait until the bloodshed ends before gaining major name recognition. We'll probably see a whole new slate of talked-about contenders after the 2010 midterms come to a close.