Election 2012: Mitch Daniels out, where does that leave the GOP?
Mitch Daniels鈥� decision not to run for president in 2012 sets scrambling the remaining declared and likely candidates, not to mention professional campaigners, funding sources, and political pundits.
Who benefits from the Hoosier Hamlet鈥檚 sitting out the election? Where does that leave the more establishment candidates and the tea party outliers?
Winnowing is always inevitable, but there鈥檚 a sense among Republican voters that their champion may not be evident among the existing field.
What that leaves, as Jonathan Martin at Politico.com puts it, is 鈥渁 GOP establishment deeply worried that the flawed options they鈥檙e left with won鈥檛 be any match for an incumbent president who seemingly won鈥檛 face a primary but is likely to shatter campaign fundraising records.鈥�
Blogging at the conservative Weekly Standard, William Kristol writes: 鈥淚t would be unfair to call the current field a vacuum. But it doesn't exactly represent an overflowing of political talent.鈥�
Speaking Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R) of Wisconsin pronounced himself 鈥渄isappointed鈥� at Daniels鈥� decision.
鈥淚 think his candidacy would have been a great addition to this race,鈥� Ryan said. "I think it's unfortunate that he's not going to run.鈥�
As much as anything else, the maneuvering among possible GOP presidential candidates has been marked by those who鈥檝e pulled out, plus those who鈥檝e issued Shermanesque 鈥渘o means no鈥� statements refusing to run.
So far, that includes Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump, Haley Barbour, John Thune, Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Rick Perry, and Paul Ryan.
On the other hand, as Kristol puts it, 鈥渋nsofar as politics abhors even a near-vacuum, others are bound to get in.鈥�
Saturday that was Herman Cain. Monday, Tim Pawlenty is scheduled to announce.
Jonathan Tobin, senior online editor of the conservative magazine Commentary, says the Daniels move 鈥済ives a tremendous boost to former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty.鈥�
鈥淧awlenty 鈥� combines fiscal conservatism along with a strong appeal to evangelicals and other social conservatives,鈥� Tobin writes. 鈥淗e also knows what he鈥檚 talking about when it comes to a president鈥檚 main responsibility: foreign policy which is more than you can say about most of the Republicans who are running.鈥�
Meanwhile, impressions that the GOP establishment is looking to one of its own to challenge Barack Obama has left some in the party鈥檚 tea party wing grumbling.
"It's extremely upsetting to hear that the establishment is courting their own candidate when Michele Bachmann, the gold standard, has been in the fight, bucking the establishment that got us in this mess," Katrina Pierson, a tea party leader in Dallas told the Associated Press.
With Huckabee鈥檚 withdrawal, that leaves Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Newt Gingrich at the top of the heap in terms of name recognition and ballot position among Republicans, according to the latest Gallup poll.
But each of these three has problems.
Romney is tarred with his 鈥淩omneyCare鈥� Massachusetts health insurance plan with its individual mandate requiring coverage. Most Americans say they鈥檇 never vote for Palin. And Gingrich may never recover from his calling Rep. Ryan's Medicare proposal "right-wing social engineering."
As for Daniels 鈥� the Indiana Governor with a strong and proven record on budget cutting 鈥� it was clear from his statement Saturday night that his decision not to run was based on family considerations.
Though he鈥檚 answered the question many times, he鈥檇 continually have to explain his unusual marriage.
In 1993, Mrs. Daniels left her husband and their four young daughters to marry another man in California. Four years later, Mitch and Cheri Daniels remarried.
In the end, it was the opinion of his wife and four adult daughters that made the difference.
鈥淲hat could have been a complicated decision was in the end very simple: on matters affecting us all, our family constitution gives a veto to the women鈥檚 caucus, and there is no override provision,鈥� he said in his statement. 鈥淪imply put, I find myself caught between two duties. I love my country; I love my family more.鈥�
