Daniels: Why he’s hesitating

Just call Mitch Daniels the “Hoosier Hamlet,” said Jonathan Martin in Politico.com. The Indiana governor continues to delay making a decision about a run for president in 2012, much to the frustration of the Republican establishment, which sees the brainy, proven fiscal conservative as a credible “alternative to Mitt Romney,” with the strongest chance of beating Barack Obama. Daniels has suggested that he is waiting for the go-ahead from his wife, Cheri—and this week, we learned why she might be reluctant: Cheri left Mitch in the 1990s, running off to California with a married doctor and leaving her four young daughters behind. She married the doctor, but then divorced him and returned to Indiana three years later, remarrying Daniels. Now, the pair faces the question all political couples with “iffy marital histories” must eventually answer, said Sheryl Gay Stolberg in The New York Times. “How much do they have to reveal to voters?”

Daniels’s private life isn’t his biggest problem, said John Fund in The Wall Street Journal. Virtually everyone agrees that the former White House budget director is “a thinking man’s candidate for president,” but his real challenge will be “convincing conservatives that they can rely on him.” He has infuriated the Christian Right by calling for a “truce” on social issues while Congress works on the deficit, and has irritated fiscal conservatives by refusing to sign anti-tax pledges. Daniels sure doesn’t look like the GOP’s “savior,” said Paul West in the Los Angeles Times. He’s just 5 feet 7 inches and balding, and at the podium has a “bland persona” that can “leave audiences cold.” Add in his “unusual marital history,” and it’s no wonder he’s hesitating to throw his hat in the ring.

It would be a shame if he didn’t, said Ruth Marcus in The Washington Post. Unlike many of his fellow Republican candidates, Daniels is “serious about reducing the debt and realistic about what it will take to achieve that.” He has the credentials to back up his ideas. As governor of Indiana, Daniels turned a $200 million deficit into a $1.3 billion surplus. Democrats might not welcome the idea of a President Daniels—as governor, he also defunded Planned Parenthood, and denied in-state tuition to illegal immigrants—but his mere presence would improve the 2012 campaign, pressing the president to “sharpen his focus on getting the debt under control.” For the sake of the election and the country, let’s hope Mrs. Daniels lets him run.

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