If Mitch Daniels ends up with a national career, it will be because he's the anti-Palin: All substance and, aside from his motorcycle habit, no flash.

The Case For Keeping Mitch Daniels

On The 2012 Presidential Short List

By Jill Lawrence/Politics Daily

The Indiana governor is on many Republican short lists for 2012, but he hasn't gotten there in quite the same way as other governors and ex-governors. He hasn't quit, published a book or signed a media contract, like former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. Nor has he shifted on the political spectrum from mild-mannered moderate to sharp-edged conservative, as have former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and and Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, the better to rally activists such as those at last week's Conservative Political Action Conference.

No, he's more like other Republican governors on my personal list of the plausible and even admirable, but probably doomed.

There's former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, burdened with his family name. There's former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, who raised some taxes and released too many prisoners.

There's Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, who recently joked that "If you see me losing 40 pounds, that means I'm either running or have cancer." He used to be one of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington, not the ideal resume in these times.

And now there's Daniels, a former federal budget director under George W. Bush, who keeps his rhetorical diet free of red meat.

Read the entire column at http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/02/24/the-case-for-keeping-mitch-daniels-on-the-gop-short-list-for-whi/.

Share |