“I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?”-William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
William Kristol of The Weekly Standard has re-ignited the movement to push Governor Mitch Daniels (R-Indiana) into the race for President, and considering Mr. Kristol’s prominence among conservative thinkers he already has the ball rolling (www.runmitchrun.com). Many observers consider this is a pipe dream as Mr. Daniels would have to quickly assemble a superior campaign team while simultaneously qualifying for the remaining primaries and raising millions of dollars to compete with the well-established war chests of the remaining field. A daunting task indeed but with the contagious feeling of despair spreading amongst republicans, a slew of conservative heavyweights eager to back a viable contender, and forty-six states yet to cast a primary vote, Mr. Daniels can still win the nomination and in my estimation the White House. Here is how:
The Reluctant Hero:
Dating back to the nation’s founding the trait of ambition has worn like a scarlet letter on overzealous politicians. American citizens inherently distrust centralized power in government, and any man who openly seeks the White House is best served doing so with the scent of humility and not the stink of hubris. As much as the citizenry yearns for politicians to tackle the problems plaguing the nation once they take office we are turned off by a man who seems willing to do anything to reach the summit of American government. With deference to his family’s request Governor Daniels chose not to run for president despite the urging of many Republicans throughout the nation. Though it was not calculated, this decision helped paint the picture of a very humble and responsible public servant who believes in family values and limited government; why would a firm believer in limited government seek the most powerful position in the United States, especially against the wishes of his family? But now with the national election looming and candidates unenthusiastically received giving republicans serious pause, Mr. Daniels will have to answer the call for the good of his country. By doing so and making a splash across the news wires, it delegitimizes the current candidates as if they were children too immature to be left home alone, establishing Mr. Daniels as the noble savoir of the party.
Timing:
Although it is very late to enter the race considering the organizational and financial disadvantages there is still a viable path to the nomination. There are six primaries between now and February 7th. After that the next primary is not until February 28th with Super Tuesday on March 6th. That gives the governor from this point a month to reach out to prominent conservative allies and utilize his well-established and vast network of donors to create a strategy for the remaining states. The bet here would be that in the time between now and February 28th none of the current four nominees can amass enough delegates to take a commanding, or even encouraging lead into Super Tuesday. There is still time to gain momentum that can carry him to victory at a brokered convention.
Credentials:
Among the four candidates Governor Daniels has the most accomplished executive record, which serves in direct contrast to President Obama’s. He is a budget cutting conservative who in his time as governor turned a $700M deficit into a billion dollar surplus. As governor he (much like his more celebrated but less accomplished counterpart in New Jersey) has challenged teachers’ unions with a merit based pay system and established a statewide school voucher program. He abolished the requirement that forced state employees pay union dues, which resulted in a 90% decrease of membership for such unions, limiting that establishment’s coffers and their financial influence on elections. As a result these unions are partially limited in backing damaging ‘progressive’ candidates that enact policies gaged at pleasing these powerful unions as political favors and not the good of the state of Indiana. The list goes on with instances where the governor took the road less traveled and chose to hammer out the tedious work of budgetary improvements that helped vault Indiana passed its fellow states in the country in productivity despite the far ranging downturn caused by the recession. His State of the Union response used the initiatives taken by his administration as an admonishment of the spending policies that brought the country to our current financial woes, but it also served as an acknowledgement of hope that there are still realistic and practical ways to repair our broken government systems.
Entering the race now would be an extraordinary task considering how far along it is already. But these are extraordinary times. Going into this election season it was understood that the principal goal is to remove President Obama from office and undo much of the damage caused by his policies in the last three years. From there the goals are to attack the problems caused by the republican legislature of the previous decade, as well as an economy damaged by two wars and two recessions. Apparently along the way it has been forgotten that a requisite for these goals is to provide the people of this country a viable choice to replace President Obama. Right now the candidates offered are barely suitable for office. These men waste time by squabbling over their mass amounts of wealth as our entitlement spending plans continue to recklessly grow without budget control and the largest percent of our citizenry in decades remain out of work. We need someone who understands these problems, and can create a plan to actually do something about them. It’s your move Governor.
– John P. Burns
tammanyhalldotcom 