What Walker Could Learn from Daniels
Mitch Daniels once again showed that he is not interested in running for president. And by doing so, he has shown why he should.
Governor Daniels has taken criticism for refusing to order Indiana state troopers to hunt down Democratic state legislators who have, like their Wisconsin counterparts, fled the state. If Daniels were truly interested in running for president he should forget the context of his job and try to one-up Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for the spotlight. Yet Daniels refuses to forget his context and his job, and it may serve his critics well if they took 30 seconds to consider it.
Years ago Daniels de-certified public sector unions with the stroke of a pen, a feat that Walker has yet to accomplish with the help of the Wisconsin state troopers. After six years of governing with a Democratic legislature, Daniels finally has the majority necessary to push through some of the boldest Republican initiatives in the country, especially his groundbreaking education reform.
Daniels is in favor of the right-to-work legislation, but is concerned that there has not yet been enough statewide discussion on it. He did not make it a central plank to his platform, and fears that using his majority to pull a fast one on private-sector unions would jeopardize his ability to deliver on the reforms he was given a clear mandate to make. In the context of governing a state, Daniels has made the right move for the Right.
In the prospective context of the presidency, Daniels decision may be questionable. But only by those who can extend their imaginations no further than the primary. If the Right wants an Obama of their own in 2012, then they are right to criticize Daniels.
If they want a candidate who would use his party’s projected majority to pull a fast one on the American people and lose their trust, then they should forget about Mitch Daniels. If they want a candidate who specializes in saying one thing and doing another, I can think of one that fits that bill.
By nominating someone like that the Republicans could very well fulfill Daniels’ worst nightmare and “win the election and then prove ourselves incapable of turning the ship of state before it went on the rocks, with us at the helm.” But if the Republicans want to forge a “coalition of a dimension no one has recently established,” to execute the reforms that our politicians aren’t even ready to speak of, they will need a different kind of president.
They would need someone who can earn America’s trust by saying what he’ll do and doing what he says, not someone interested in running for President.
Max Eden is the founder and National Director of the Student Initiative to Draft Daniels.
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