Is a Mitch Daniels candidacy being ‘Trumped’?
The announcement by Haley Barbour that he will not seek the 2012 GOP presidential nomination was a bit of a disappointment, and I mean that seriously.
No, I don’t think Barbour would have made a good president, and I doubt he would even have been a top contender for the nomination. But he did have — how should I put this? — an appreciation for basic reality and seriousness that too many other candidates in the GOP field do not.
At one point in their careers, the same could have been said of Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney, but since those two former governors volunteered for Extreme Makeover, Political Edition, they’ve emerged almost unrecognizable and have repudiated their former selves. I’m not sure who they are anymore, and I’m not sure they know who they are.
The only remaining potential candidate with a firm grounding in this factual universe is Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. While I wouldn’t vote for him against President Obama, I could certainly envision Daniels as president without fearing for the future of my country. And I can’t say that about the rest of the GOP field.
So I’m hoping Daniels runs, both for the good of the Republican Party and for the country, but he clearly has some misgivings. (He’s expected to announce his decision in the next week or two). I have to wonder whether Daniels’ misgivings might have increased in the last few weeks as he watched the clownish Donald Trump rise rapidly in the GOP polls.
Someone such as Daniels would be the anti-Trump, presumably unwilling to pander to the birtherism and Islamaphobia rampant on the right. Given the current environment, he has reason to question just how much of a market there might be for what he has to offer.
– Jay Bookman
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
435 comments Add your comment
Jason
April 26th, 2011
11:47 pm
Good night all the libs out there. Tomorrow instead of blogging 15 times in faux stallone fashion maybe reach into your on wallet and help someone. anyway- just a thought.
oldguy
April 27th, 2011
12:21 am
sooo funny Jay….soooo funny!!!!”worried for the future of the country!!”…..and you vote for Obomba!!!!
Sooooo funny!!
As if you would even think of voting for anyone else.
God vs Obomba Jay votes the O man.
As we all know he walks on water (that’s Obomba of course!)
Another meaningless column.
Save us time:
—————————-cut here—————————
Obama good….Republicans bad
————————–Paste here—————————
St Simons - we're on Island time
April 27th, 2011
12:34 am
woo hoo they’ve gone past teleprompter, caliphate, Kenyan, and socialist, and reached all the way back to 911. Hey. when you’re down to a noun, verb, and 911 – its time to go boil some mo shrimp.
Hootinanny Yum Yum
April 27th, 2011
1:08 am
Headline from the AJC, “4 people shot in DeKalb County”.
For the life of me, I can’t figure out why all the DeKalb county school superintendent candidates bailed.
First, Clayton county schools. Then, Atlanta Public Schools. Now, DeKalb county.
Like dominoes. Next?
SouthernGirl2
April 27th, 2011
2:15 am
Paul Ryan’s Plan to Gut Medicare Stirs Anger at Town Halls: Naw Son, They’re Not Buying What You’re Selling
http://3chicspolitico.com/2011/04/26/paul-ryans-plan-to-gut-medicare-stirs-anger-at-town-halls-naw-son-theyre-not-buying-whats-youre-selling/#comments
Is a Mitch Daniels candidacy being ‘Trumped’? | Jay Bookman – Slinking Toward Retirement
April 27th, 2011
6:30 am
[...] Is a Mitch Daniels candidacy being ‘Trumped’? | Jay Bookman. Posted in Opinion – Tagged being, Candidate, disappointment, Good, GOP, gop field, Gov, [...]
Mary Elizabeth
April 27th, 2011
6:56 am
SouthernGirl2 @ 2:15 a.m.
Thank you for posting these 7 revealing videos. I want to urge readers to view, also, the video available immediately after the completion of the first video (”Paul Ryan Get Booed for Supporting Wealthy Tax Break”).
Instead of selecting “replay” for that first video, select instead the video available in that frame which is entitled, “Report: Koch Brothers Buy Politicians.” It brings daylight into darkness.
stands for decibels
April 27th, 2011
7:10 am
Oh, do sign it, Mitch. Make my day.
While Democrats in Congress blocked Republicans from defunding Planned Parenthood earlier this month, some states have responded with their own measures to pull funding for the nonprofit. One such state is Indiana — putting to the test Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels’s call for a truce on social issues.
If the state legislature passes a Senate bill and Daniels signs it, Indiana would become the first state to block Medicaid recipients from receiving care at Planned Parenthood. A similar bill is in working its way through the Kansas legislature, with the support of Gov. Sam Brownback (R).
Though he says he is firmly anti-abortion, Daniels has repeatedly made the case that Republicans should put aside such issues in 2012 to focus on economic problems. “We’re going to need to unify all kinds of people, and we’re going — freedom is going — to need every friend it can get,” he explained in a recent interview.
stands for decibels
April 27th, 2011
7:13 am
More about this brilliant bill, brought to you by the fine folks who work tirelessly to keep women down and in a world of sh-t:
The measure has implications beyond one organization, however, because federal law generally prevents states from deciding which family planning services Medicaid patients can use. That means that Indiana could forfeit all $4 million it receives in federal family planning funding, Family and Social Services Administration Secretary Michael Gargano told the Associated Press. That would leave 22,000 low-income residents without access to family planning services according to Betty Cockrum, executive director of Planned Parenthood Indiana. The bill has been filed as an “emergency” measure, meaning its provisions go into effect immediately.
While the Planned Parenthood “cut” appears to save money, it could actually end up costing the state. Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration says that more than half the births in Indiana are paid for by Medicaid, and that percentage is almost certain to increase if thousands of women lose access to contraceptives.
stands for decibels
April 27th, 2011
7:35 am
I could certainly envision Daniels as president without fearing for the future of my country.
Well sure, inasmuch as how the country would still function under a Pres. Daniels. It’d just be more messed up than it is today, is all.
There’s no way anyone could read his “red menace” CPAC speech and not deem him just another GOP fiscal nutter, albeit a bit more clever than most in how he tries to convince us that the GOP places trust “in average people [...] confident in their ability to decide wisely for themselves, on the important matters of their lives.”
Although, seriously, if he does show that he means what he says about calling a “truce” on social issues like criminalizing abortion and such (actually vetoing the “defund Planned Parenthood” bill that will come before him soon would actually send a signal that he means what he says), I might be willing to deem him Less Than Horrible.
independent thinker
April 27th, 2011
7:46 am
I still cannot figure out how the Republicans get all these bozos and no-nothings in those little clown cars?
willydoit?
April 27th, 2011
7:55 am
It really doesn’t matter who the republicans run….Obama will lose in a landslide just as Jimmy Carter did.
Americans as a whole are more interested in entertainment than they are in politics, but they are smart enough to know that with a panty waste liberal in the White House, that apoligizes to the rest of the world for US being strong (see Jimmy Carter), with no extra money in their pockets to go to said “entertainment venues”, and higher energy prices…all adds up to…nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey…good bye…OBAMA
Corey
April 27th, 2011
7:55 am
Parker Stanea, 28, told officers a diminutive teen, no taller than 5-foot-4 and wearing a pink shirt, hit him with a soda can over the left eye. Stanea said the youths then pushed him to the ground and stole his wallet.
Speaking publicly for first time about the assault, Stanea, whose comments were supplied by MARTA, said news accounts exaggerated the severity of the incident.
“For some reason, the media made this out to be like it was a horror movie, but it wasn’t,” he said.
DebbieDoRight
April 27th, 2011
8:02 am
I still cannot figure out how the Republicans get all these bozos and no-nothings in those little clown cars?
They use butter……
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 27th, 2011
8:05 am
In NAACP v. Alabama (1958), the court barred Alabama from forcing the NAACP to disclose its members. Those justices would have struck down a similar effort to force the release of the NAACP’s financial supporters. They would have rightly viewed it as an infringement of the constitutional right to free association and free speech.
Today President Obama is ignoring the lessons of the civil rights era he claims to revere. According to a draft executive order leaked last week, Mr. Obama plans to require any company seeking a federal contract to disclose its executives’ political contributions over $5,000—not just to candidates, but to any group that might make “independent expenditure” or “electioneering communication” advertisements.
———–
Obozo: Fascist.
TaxPayer
April 27th, 2011
8:05 am
They use butter……
A well lubed machine, eh! I’m glad I wasn’t sipping coffee when I saw that one.
independent thinker
April 27th, 2011
8:07 am
It must be the grease from the payoffs they get from big oil for those billion dollar subsidies
TaxPayer
April 27th, 2011
8:08 am
Lil BB is gonna have himself convinced to vote for Obama in no time given his continued painting of him as the perfect little Republican.
stands for decibels
April 27th, 2011
8:09 am
“For some reason, the media made this out to be like it was a horror movie, but it wasn’t,” he said.
Oh, he exaggerates. People handled this story Very Responsibly. See also this account, which more or less reflects the attitudes of our Very Serious Conservative contributors who wrote to Jay asking him why he wasn’t giving this piece wall-to-wall coverage.
-
-
(and no, I didn’t go looking for that sorta link–it popped up fifth in line when I googled the victim’s name.)
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 27th, 2011
8:13 am
More about this brilliant bill, brought to you by the fine folks who work tirelessly to keep women down and in a world of sh-t:
——
Did you know that it is possible to get health care even if someone else isn’t paying?
The entitlement mentality cultivated by the Democrat party is a tragedy for this country.
stands for decibels
April 27th, 2011
8:15 am
Did you know that it is possible to get health care even if someone else isn’t paying?
no, really, my Lil’ Bitter ‘Bagger? Explain. Enlighten me. I had no idea!
Finn McCool
April 27th, 2011
8:16 am
They use butter……
Pronounce it like Paula Dean: “buddahh”
USinUK
April 27th, 2011
8:16 am
“They use butter……”
That would make Julia Childs weep
stands for decibels
April 27th, 2011
8:16 am
And Lil’ BB, while you’re at it, why don’t you explain to everyone here why you claimed earlier that eliminating Medicaid–your word, “eliminate”–would be great first step toward fiscal health?
Finn McCool
April 27th, 2011
8:17 am
Did you know that it is possible to get health care even if someone else isn’t paying?
And all those retirees who have worked and HAVE paid taxes to go to paying for it? They are somehow freeloadin’?
USinUK
April 27th, 2011
8:18 am
“The entitlement mentality cultivated by the Democrat party is a tragedy for this country.”
hooray!!! I’ll play!!
“The entitlement mentality cultivated by the Republican party is a tragedy for this country.”
wah-wah-waaaaahhhhhhh … I don’t WANNA pay taxes!!! I want the worlds biggest and mightiest army and I want to get us into all kinds of wars and I want cops and firemen and secure borders and safe food and drugs and roads to drive my big ol car on but I don’ wanna pay for ANY of it!!!
stands for decibels
April 27th, 2011
8:24 am
whoa. news-to-me sheets upstairs…
Jay
April 27th, 2011
8:26 am
That’s some weird stuff, sfd, and yes, just a more blatant version of what we heard here.
UNinUK, very well put.
Fresh sheets upstairs.
independent thinker
April 27th, 2011
8:39 am
and US in Uk I want to make big profits like GE, ship all the jobs overseas for cheap labor and get government contracts and pay no taxes.I bet their execs figured out how to get big bonus with little or no taxes due to the Bush tax cuts. and I want the seniors on medicare to get free drugs so the vote Republican and make sure Big Pharma benefits too with no restrictions on what garbage they sell to seniors at any price so they can advertise on TV for the latest and bewst free drugs,
lynnie gal
April 27th, 2011
8:49 am
It’ll be good for the Democrats if Republicans keep going on the birther issues and keep Trump first in the polls. It’s fun while it lasts…
David A. Staples
April 27th, 2011
9:06 am
I’m supporting Gary Johnson – http://www.garyjohnson2012.com
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 27th, 2011
9:12 am
USukInUK: I don’t WANNA pay taxes!!! I want the worlds biggest and mightiest army and I want to get us into all kinds of wars and I want cops and firemen and secure borders and safe food and drugs and roads to drive my big ol car on but I don’ wanna pay for ANY of it!!!
———-
Link please.
That’s what I thought.
poison pen
April 27th, 2011
9:22 am
Independent Thinker, very well put, dirty sheet upstairs.
Dr. EB
April 27th, 2011
7:45 pm
With the show The Apprentice, I was starting to like Trump. He had gotten on my nerves a little before then, but now I cannot stand him. The certificate episode has made him look like a fool. I do not think that he will run and think that this is a side-show. However, a Trump administration cannot do any worse than the train wreck of an administration that this country had from 2001-09. Let’s not forget.
test
April 29th, 2011
5:23 pm
:gunfinger: