Will Mitch Daniels Run?

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has to make a decision soon about whether he is going to throw his hat into the presidential ring. Can he change the nature of the race, and will Republicans accept someone who cares less about social issues and more about the economy, and someone who realizes you have to compromise at times?

Daniels also would challenge his own party, with a message that calls for focusing on fiscal issues over social ones, for appealing seriously to voters who are not part of the conservative coalition and for being prepared to compromise with Democrats to solve the debt problem.

As he put it in a speech this year: “Should the best way be blocked . . . then someone will need to find the second-best way. Or the third, because the nation’s survival requires it. Purity in martyrdom is for suicide bombers.”

Word is, his wife doesn’t favor a run. And religious and social conservatives aren’t receptive. And Daniels would have to answer for how the economy did during the Bush years when he was budget director. And as governor he tried to privatize parts of welfare, turning over claims processing to private companies like IBM, before state officials terminated the contract resulting in a lawsuit.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.