A STAND UP GUY WHO DOESN'T STAND A CHANCE
Wed, 20 Apr 2011 20:18:39
Mitch Daniel's potential strengths in the upcoming Republican primaries are also his inherent weaknesses. In a contest that features The Donald, The Newt, The Sarah, The Mitt and The T-Paw, Mitch's record as a straight talking, generally moderate, reasonably intelligent and thoroughly experienced public servant puts him head and shoulders above the crowd of clowns, crazies and cowards playing Capture The Republican Flag.
Mitch harkens back to the days when the GOP put up sane and qualified leaders for the biggest job of all. He's one of those, and there's the rub. Having promoted higher taxes as part of a deficit reduction solution, having signed the Healthy Indiana Plan that bestowed health coverage on 132,000 working Hoosiers, and having called on the GOP for a truce on social issues (read,"Cool it on abortion, gay marriage and birther BS until we get our house in order"), Mitch has alienated himself from all the frustrated, know- nothing booboisie who will fill the Iowa caucuses and storm the New Hampshire polling booths.
Personally, I think Governor Daniels matches up pretty well with the current front runners. Unlike Trump, Mitch's hair and ideas are real; unlike Gingrich, Mitch doesn't struggle with the delusion that Obama is a crypto, Kenyan anti-colonialist; unlike Palin, Mitch can read; unlike Romney, Mitch has a spine and unlike Pawlenty, Mitch hasn't had his lips surgically attached to the posterior of the Mad Hatted Tea Party.
All in all, Mitch Daniels is a stand up guy who doesn't stand a chance.
This piece is also posted on Politico's Arena Blog at: http://ow.ly/4Exgx