GOP establishment darling Mitch Daniels wants to avoid wedge issues
Thomas Lifson
Conservatives suspicious of the GOP establishment's tendency to foist wishy-washy candidates on the party, and wary of Mitch Daniels as another John McCain, have had their doubts vindicated.
The GOP establishment is begging Mitch Daniels to run for president, if you believe Politico's Mike Allen: "GOP elite see Mitch Daniels as 2012 savior." Meanwhile, social conservatives have been down on him ever since the Indiana governor called for a "truce" on social issues.
Now comes video of Daniels speaking to the "centrist" GOP Ripon Society (founded at Harvard) in which Daniels announces that the GOP should avoid "wedge issues."
The very insightful and level-headed Jennifer Rubin sums up the implication of this astonishing statement:
When Daniels says the GOP should avoid "wedge" issues, that means the entire debate must conform to what the Democrats will tolerate: "The whole concept of a wedge issue should be foreign to us if we really want to come back." That is not what the party's base wants to hear. They want to set the agenda, not capitulate before beginning the bargaining. More than any single issue, it is this attitude that will be an anathema to the Republican primary electorate. Daniels is also, not to be too indelicate, boring.
Daniels is in many ways the anti-Newt, cautious where Newt is daring. Yet his potential candidacy is moving along the same vector as Newt's -- alienating the party's base, and endearing himself to the opposition.
Of all the states currently working on serious education reform, Indiana may deserve the gold medal.
Gov. Mitch Daniels and state Superintendent Tony Bennett fearlessly led the charge to dramatically reform the state’s education system.
“Are we about funding the education of children or funding the education system,” Bennett often said.
To that end, perhaps the most incredible of the reforms was the establishment of the broadest school voucher program in the country. Within the next few years, the vast majority of Indiana students will be able to go to the school of their choice and the state-allotted funding will follow them. Among other reforms includes increasing the number of charter schools, creating a performance pay system for teachers and restricting collective bargaining to pay and benefits.
What state completely ended collective bargaining for government employee unions?
The move ushered in a period of extensive reorganization, consolidation and privatization of government services — efforts Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels has said could not have happened so quickly under union contracts.
Meanwhile, union membership plummeted. Prior to 2005, 16,408 Indiana state workers paid union dues out of about 25,000 who were eligible, or 66 percent, according to state and union figures. Today, just 1,409 out of 20,000 eligible workers, or 7 percent, pay dues.
If ending the public school monopoly, busting up government employee unions, and neutering Planned Parenthood aren't wedge issues, then I don't know what is.
Daniels has done more great work as governor than anyone else in office today. Unfortunately for him, he's not a big blow hard who runs around the country telling people how great he is.
Daniels has done more great work as governor than anyone else in office today. Unfortunately for him, he's not a big blow hard who runs around the country telling people how great he is.
