Mitch Daniels

Plus, how abortion polls.

As the summer of 2016 wound down, the University of Chicago’s dean of students sent a letter to the school’s incoming cohort of freshmen telling them not to expect the sort of coddling that had become worryingly commonplace at elite American colleges. His welcome to the class of 2020 aimed to…

It's widely accepted that traditional colleges and universities are ripe for some kind of disruption.

In a digital-age fulfillment of its mission as a land-grant college, Purdue University has acquired the for-profit, mainly online Kaplan University. Purdue’s board of trustees voted Thursday on a deal that would make Kaplan a public university, affiliated with Purdue and dedicated to extending…

Former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels hasn't ruled out a bid for his old office should his successor, current governor Mike Pence, be named Donald Trump's running mate, THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned.

A savvy and patriotic friend writes:

Free college is still a potent rallying cry for the stalwart Bernie Sanders youth. Hope for debt-free education ought to be wilting along with Sanders' campaign—and yet, not unlike the delusional conviction of the socialist senator's young devotees, it has yet to fade.

The president of Purdue University has sent a campus-wide email reminding students and faculty of the school's commitment to its "shared values" of being a "welcoming, inclusive, and discrimination-free community" while also remaining "steadfast in preserving academic freedom and individual…

The idea of writing a book about a presidential campaign that never happened had not occurred to Don Cogman. He had spent two years trying to get Mitch Daniels, then governor of Indiana, to run for president in 2012. His effort—and it was no small effort—had failed. Daniels had moved on, right out…

Former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels was on Conversations With Bill Kristol recently, and the clips aired this weekend.

Eyebrows at campuses around the country furrowed with concern last week over an Associated Press report involving former Indiana governor and current Purdue University president Mitch Daniels. Indeed, “AP Exclusive: Daniels looked to censor opponents,” is one heck of a headline to hang on four…

There’s a collision brewing between Indiana and Washington over health care: whether our system will be a top-down affair of central planning, or whether it will leave any room for bottom-up arrangements that rely on dispersed, individual decision-making and resource-allocation by self-correcting…

U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, the Indiana Republican, has a new 30-second advertisement contrasting himself with his Democratic opponent, Congressman Joe Donnelly. Mourdock ties Donnelly with Barack Obama and encourages Hoosier voters to "follow the Indiana principles that Richard…

Ahead of Tuesday's Republican Senate primary in Indiana, six-term incumbent Dick Lugar has a message for Hoosier voters: "At this point, help."

According to the Associated Press, Governor Mitch Daniels just signed legislation making Indiana a right-to-work state:

Mark Salter, writing at RealClearPolitics:

In his last work, The Responsible Electorate (1966), the great scholar V.O. Key argued against the thinking of political scientists of his age that the mass public was too ill-informed to make wise decisions:           

New York senator Chuck Schumer commented on Mitch Daniels's Republican response to the State of the Union Address at a press conference today on Capitol Hill. "The Republican speaker last night, Mitch Daniels, talked about Americans must talk about the state of the union as grave," Schumer said.…

Has some group called the RGA released the first Mitch Daniels 2012 ad of this election cycle?

The New York Times writes about Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, who will give the Republican response to the State of the Union address tonight, and reports: 

I’ve got to think Monday night’s debate further swelled the groundswell of support for Mitch Daniels. The liveliest part of the debate was at the beginning, when Mitt went after Newt—and Republicans all over America watched with fascinated horror at the thought that these are the two GOP…

Matt McKillip, a representative of www.runmitchrun.com, earlier today on Fox News: 

Ross Douthat, writing on the New York Times’s website, has a must-read article on the Republican presidential field and the desirability—and even possibility!—of a new entry. “For months now, even as the rest of the conservative commentariat has gradually resigned itself to the existing…

This morning, the Republican leadership on the Hill announced that Indiana governor Mitch Daniels would deliver the GOP response Tuesday night to President Obama’s State of the Union Address. An hour ago, a dark lady mysteriously appeared at our offices and dropped off an envelope before vanishing…

Hot Air: "Obama: Are you better off than you were four years ago? I guess you’re not"

Chris Christie gave an impressive speech at the Reagan Library last night. But by far the most interesting moment was an exchange from the question and answer session.

Although Indiana governor Mitch Daniels would like to see his New Jersey counterpart run for president, Daniels said today that he doesn't see any signs Chris Christie will change his mind. “I personally didn’t press him, so I have nothing to report,” Daniels said of his meeting last Thursday with…

Matthew Continetti writes that Mitch Daniels's new book, Keeping the Republic, is unfortunately "a campaign book with no candidate."

Lots of interesting e-mails on the boss’s “Yikes.” This one, from a Republican who has held high elective office, is worth noting:

As Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan comes to a final decision about running for president, several top national conservatives are encouraging him to join the race. Ryan, who has been seriously but quietly considering a presidential bid for several months, is expected to decide on a run in the next…

Indiana governor and budget hawk Mitch Daniels, who dubbed debt "the new red menace" during his CPAC speech this year, supports the Boehner plan:

Ben Smith: "Report: NRSC, Obama donor arrested as Pakistan agent"

A CBS affiliate in Terre Haute reports: 

There are currently at 800 Medicaid providers that can provide patients with family planning services in the state of Indiana, but you wouldn't know it by this "report" by the Associated Press's Rick Callahan.

"The remaining candidates, in essence, are still running against Mr. Daniels’s ghost."

Not running: Mike Huckabee, the 2008 runner-up; John Thune, the likeliest candidate from the Senate, the body that has produced the out-party candidate in 2008, 2004, and 1996; Mike Pence, who could lay as much claim as anyone to represent the conservative movement; and Haley Barbour and Mitch…

"Schumer: You’re damn right we’ll use Gingrich’s criticism of Ryan against the GOP"

Erin McPike at RealClearPolitics reports that, following a big fundraising speech by Mitch Daniels's wife, the Indiana governor kicked back with some college students who are asking him to run for president:

This might be the surest sign yet that the Indiana Governor is ready to run:

"Why Don't We Hear About Soros' Ties to Over 30 Major News Organizations?"

Steve Hayward: "Mulling a Daniels Run"

"Want to guess which potential Republican candidate looks ready to pass the pH test on [cap and trade]? Mitch Daniels. In early 2009, when the issue was ill-defined, he was already arguing against it. That's a nice arrow in the quiver the next time he's asked about the 'social truce.'"

Alternate headline: "Honestly, Who Cares?"

"Indiana Gov. Daniels thinks he could beat Obama"

After New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's recent praise of Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels yesterday, I joked that Daniels/Christie would make an awfully good ticket for 2012.

John Heilemann: "If the economy remains in the state it’s in today come Labor Day next year, the ending of bin Laden will be all but forgotten as a salient voting issue, and Obama will be vulnerable, more vulnerable than he would find plausible, or even imaginable, today."

Wither Ryan/Rubio 2012? Is Daniels/Christie the new hotness?

Mark Halperin: "Five Mistakes the Obama Administration Has Made in the Aftermath of Bin Laden Killing"

Mitch Daniels, the Republican governor of Indiana and a possible presidential candidate in 2012, still hasn't fleshed out his ideas on foreign policy in general or the war in Afghanistan in particular.

He has been the subject of ongoing 2012 presidential speculation. His fiscal fortitude in Indiana has been widely covered, and his controversial “truce” remarks on social issues have sparked heated debate. But to date, Indiana governor Mitch Daniels has received very little national exposure for…

Mitch Daniels is likely, I’m told, to announce his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination in the next couple of weeks. Michele Bachmann will, I think, enter the race in June. And it now looks as if Mike Huckabee is also going to run.

The conventional wisdom is that the emerging Republican field for 2012 is a very weak one. However, like so much else in the topsy-turvy age of Obama, the conventional wisdom on this one is completely upside down. The idea of a weak GOP field is almost as ridiculous as a debate about a…

Valerie Jarrett draws the line at releasing the president's college transcripts.

Indiana governor Mitch Daniels is taking on teachers' unions and working to expand charter schools. The Evansville Courier & Press reports: 

Indiana governor and potential presidential candidate Mitch Daniels issues a statement on the House Republican budget: 

Mitch Daniels and Medicaid: Michael Cannon for the prosecution, Tevi Troy for the defense.

"Why Is PBS Linking to Fake Biographies of Conservatives?"

Is Mitch Daniels going to run for president? It may be a while before we know for sure, but there are a few reasons to believe he’s moving closer to a decision in the affirmative.

Has England lost its nerve?

Having utterly failed to convince the American people to embrace Obamacare, and facing a steadfast House of Representatives that has passed a bill to repeal Obamacare by a margin of 56 votes, the Obama administration — always probing for weakness — is now testing the resolve of Republican…

Why a U.S. government shutdown is worth it

"Charles and David Koch are not going to be silenced. They are principled men and we have a principled company.”

Obama is sitting out the union fights.

While watching the video of Indiana governor Mitch Daniels' smooth CPAC speech, I had the same thought that I had when I heard him speak to a small group of reporters at the Heritage Foundation in June: He seems well-suited to do what the next president must do--reform entitlement programs.

This item from Politico caught my eye:

Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, who kicks off his national book tour (i.e. the unofficial start of his presidential candidacy) this week, is viewed as a somewhat squishy establishment Republican by some in the media and the conservative movement. That perception may be due in part to the…

Indiana Republican governor Mitch Daniels was profiled last night on Fox News:

1. C'mon, you knew this would happen, right?  Gallup finds a 10-point shift in party preferences toward the Democrats in the last week, which nobody else found: 

If my ears didn't deceive me, I heard Juan Williams say this morning, seated only a few feet away on Fox News Sunday, that "everyone likes Chris Christie and Mitch Daniels." He said this, of course, as a prelude to arguing that Christie and Daniels are much more reasonable than those wacky…

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

Mitch Daniels told THE WEEKLY STANDARD's Andy Ferguson that the next president "would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues. We’re going to just have to agree to get along for a little while,” until economic issues are resolved.