Not Since Any War the French Have Fought In Have We Seen a Capitulation As Fast as Mitch Daniels'

With Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin leading the good fight against the "Fleebaggers" to return some sanity to public employee compensation packages, I had hoped other Republican governors would get the message the voters sent in November and join the battle.  With all the ferocity of a French surrender, Mitch Daniels in Indiana folded faster than a AAA road map when Democrats in his state lit out for the borders to stop the progress of a right-to-work bill in the Indiana legislature.  Many conservatives, including me, were dumbfounded at how fast he gave up the fight.

In politics timing is everything.  You may not always get the fight you want at the time you want it, but when it presents itself you have to act.  The fight over public employee unions and their gold-plated benefit plans had come to a head in Wisconsin with hordes of drum-banging dopers, truant teachers, and fraud-supporting physicians infesting Madison, and Daniels was given a perfect opportunity to become part of the solution by continuing the fight in Indiana.

His "profile in courage" moment:

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, still weighing the possibility of a presidential bid, said today that he “salutes” Democrats who fled Indiana to prevent a vote on a controversial labor bill.

Simple question:  Would any Democrat be as complimentary towards Republicans who pulled the same stunt the Dems did?  ANY Democrat??  Of course not.  They know how the game is played.

I'm now weighing the possibility of Mitch Daniels' presidential bid. It weighs nothing. Pure fluff.

Jim Geraghty, generally a fan of Daniels, had this to say in his Morning Jolt:

He worked for Reagan aschief political adviser and liaison to state and local officials. He's worked in the private sector with some significant success at Eli Lilly. He worries about details. He says "We have to means-test the hell out of" entitlements once deemed untouchable. He tells people who he ought to be courting all kinds of things they don't want to hear. If you consider the Obama-as-messiah hype of 2007-2008 to be a new national low point in serious political discourse, the candidacy of Daniels looks like a big bucket of ice water splashed on the dreamy electorate looking for magic-wand solutions. 

But when your state's Democrats decide to throw a tantrum worthy of my toddler and hightail it across the state line like Smokey and the Bandit, you have to call them out on their crap. No constitution, state or national, includes an "I'm taking my bat and my ball and I'm going home" amendment. This is not political discourse or protest or an innovative tactical maneuver. These are refusals to abide by the established rules, laws, customs, and traditions of the American political system:  small-scale, temporary secessions.

Daniels may be good on policy, but America is not going to need a policy wonk president by the time Obama is through. We'll need someone willing to fight those entities, be they unions or terrorist (I know, sometimes interchangeable) that would harm this country whether the harm be physical or economic.

Daniels doesn't have the fire-in-the-belly for the fight.   He's previously stated that he wanted a "truce on social issues", and it now appears he wants a truce on fiscal issues as well.

No thanks.  NO GOP NOMINATION FOR YOU! NEXT!