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.
and yet Daniels signed a defunding of planned parent-hood into law. It's amazing how the tea party would rather have someone bombastic with no chance of winning over someone who actually has a record of successfully implementing policy and could actually win.
It's amazing how the tea party would rather have someone bombastic with no chance of winning over someone who actually has a record of successfully implementing policy and could actually win.
I completely agree. Daniels has implemented more fundamental reform as governor than anyone else in office today.
Mitch Daniels is less electable to the Whitehouse than that idiot McCain. Which of course is why our leftwingnuts want him to be the nominee next year.
Mitch Daniels is less electable to the Whitehouse than that idiot McCain
Utter nonsense. Daniels has a track record of reforming government. McCain has a track record of partnering with people like fat boy Teddie to force more government down our throats.
At this point I'm betting on the M & M ticket -- Mitch and Michelle (Bachmann).
