The Blowback Against Public-Sector Unions Expands

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels likes what he saw in Wisconsin:

On the heels of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's history-making recall victory, the governor of nearby Indiana with his own record of curtailing union benefits suggested public-sector unions are past their prime and should be abolished.

"I think, really, government works better without them," Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels told "Fox News Sunday," when asked whether public-worker unions should even exist.

Daniels had cracked down on collective bargaining for state workers as soon as he took office in 2005, six years before Walker and his GOP allies in the state legislature started down the same path -- triggering a backlash that forced him to stand for election this past Tuesday. Walker made history as the first governor to survive the recall test, beating Democrat Tom Barrett.

Daniels said that vote should send a message about the problems with public-sector unions.

"I think the message is that, first of all, voters are seeing the fundamental unfairness of government becoming its own special interest group, sitting on both sides of the table," he said.

Public-sector unions are the worst thing that ever happened to local government. It has cost taxpayers dearly and has directly led to many of the fiscal problems experienced by state and local municipalities and agencies. It's one thing for workers to negotiate against a multi-national corporation, another thing entirely for workers to negotiate against the taxpayers. It's got to stop.

Political Quote of the Day

From Charles Krauthammer, discussing Mitch Daniels' GOP response to the State of the Union speech:

It was the best response speech I’ve ever heard after State of the Union, which is a hard thing to do after the pomp and the majesty of the President’s speech. And the content of it is quite remarkable. It was the best articulation of the conservative position on the major issues - on reforms, inequality and all that - that anybody has given in this cycle. I mean, you sort of sigh and you wish he were running.

But the advice I’d give to a Mitt Romney: memorize that speech, give it everywhere you go, you’ll be president, because he took on the issues of inequality in a way that nobody else has. He said the way you want to remedy inequality in taxation is not to raise rates, which will hurt the economy. What you want to do is you want to have the rich contribute by eliminating deductions, which increases inefficiency and equity, and also, entitlement reforms so you means test and the rich will get less, which promotes social equity and debt reduction. That is the way you want to do it. Nobody else had stated it. He did it in 30 seconds. It was quite remarkable.

Unfortunately, I don't think Romney has it in him to recite that speech and pretend well enough that he believes it.

Mitch Daniels Has The Toughest SOTU Job (besides listening to it)

And he did well:

As President Obama made his call for economic fairness, his Republican rivals blasted the president for spurring divisions in his State of the Union speech.

“We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of ‘haves’ and ‘have nots;’ we must always be a nation of ‘haves’ and ‘soon to haves,’” Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said in the official GOP response to the speech.

Daniels, a popular economic conservative, blasted Obama’s economic policies as a “grand experiment in trickle-down government” and “pro-poverty,” efforts that have hampered the economy rather than helped. The governor, who took a pass on a presidential bid last year, cast the coming election as a critical moment.

“So 2012 is a year of true opportunity, maybe our last, to restore an America of hope and upward mobility, and greater equality,” Daniels said.

Daniels positioned the party as the defender of business, calling it “one of the noblest of human pursuits” too often disparaged by the president. He pointed to the Obama’s decision to block construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, a project the administration says it cannot clear for environmental approval in the time allotted by Congress.

“The extremism that stifles the development of homegrown energy, or cancels a perfectly safe pipeline that would employ tens of thousands, or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy,” Daniel said.

Daniels is making a lot of people wish his wife would have let him run for president.

Save Us, Mitch Daniels, You're Our Only Hope...

Bill Kristol fantasizes a scenario in which Mitch Daniels, while giving the GOP response to Obama's State of the Union speech tomorrow night, drops a bit of a bombshell on the GOP nomination race.  Here's how Kristol has Daniels wrapping up his remarks:

Which raises the question: Is the current crop of Republican presidential candidates up to denying President Obama a second term? And would any of them be up to the necessary remodeling of our nation if they were to win? Unfortunately, lots of my fellow Republicans have doubts on both scores. A recent poll found that 7 out of 10 Republicans across the nation would like more options to choose from for president.

The candidates for the Republican nomination are my friends. I like and admire them. But I must say I’ve increasingly come to share the doubt that any of them would be likely to win, or would be likely to govern successfully.

So I want to announce tonight that I am open to reconsidering my decision not to seek the presidency in 2012. I have not wanted to run, for family reasons among others. I have hoped someone else would prove up to the task. But my family and I have now decided that country must come first. I am considering joining the race.

But I need to know if you want me to run. I only want to enter the race if you, the people, think I should. So here’s what I propose: None of the candidates currently running has received more than a total of 300,000 votes in the three contests so far. So here’s a test of my viability: If in the next few days I receive more than 300,000 emails, at http://mymanmitch.com/, asking me to run—then I will take that as a sign that, despite my previous reluctance, I should enter the contest.

If I run, I will be a reluctant candidate, in the sense that I did not plan on seeking this position. But let me assure you of this: if I do run, I will not run a reluctant campaign. I will run full out. I will compete in those primaries where I can still get on the ballot, I will go all out to win at the convention where the nomination will likely be decided, and I will take the fight to President Obama in the fall. If I run, I will run to win—because this country deserves leadership that will fundamentally remodel our government and restore our nation.

Thank you, good night, and God Bless America.

It's not going to happen, but I'm sure there are some establishment Republicans that would love to see such a scenario.

Political Graphic of the Day

Five Thirty Eight, a NY Times Political blog, takes a look at the GOP field:

If I were doing the diagram I think I'd move Perry's marker to the left and down a bit from Pawlenty's.  I think Perry is much more electable than 538 thinks.

You can read the whole analysis here.

Mitch Daniels' Wife Won't Let Him Run for President

Probably just as well (from Top of the Ticket):

In a humble 164-word email to supporters early Sunday morning, Indiana's Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels said he would not pursue his party's nomination for 2012.

His decision came as a shock to many mainstream Republicans, who knew of the objections of his wife Cherie to the personal rigors and media scrutinty of a national campaign.

But they thought those concerns had been overcome in recent days of quiet lobbying.

Not so.

Gov. Perry? Gov. Rick Perry? It's 3am and your phone is ringing.

What makes this extra interesting is that for weeks various Obama operatives have been trying to sell America  and the GOP on the idea that Daniels was the candidate they most feared.  Of course, that's nonsense.  It was an effort to get the GOP to nominate another McCain, Mr. "Let's All Get Along" who would get trampled by Obama in the election.  Didn't work.

Huck's Out, So Who Benefits?

Besides the voters, that is. Katrina Trinko at The Corner has some reactions:

It’s unlikely that Mike Huckabee’s decision to forgo a presidential run will significantly boost any candidate.

“I don’t think anybody gains tremendously from this,” says Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “I can see three or four candidates who can pick off social conservatives or Southerners or blue collar Republicans and Independents. I just don’t see there being a real Huckabee bloc that moves en masse to anybody.”

Sabato thinks that Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Tim Pawlenty are among those who could gain some of the social conservative voters that have backed Mike Huckabee, while southern voters might drift to Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich.

One candidate who might not pick up votes from Huckabee’s decision: Mitt Romney.

“He hates Mitt Romney,” Sabato says. “Given that intense dislike, one has to assume that he will at least make comments hurtful to Romney and maybe endorse one of the other candidates at some point to try to stop Romney, if indeed Romney’s moving forward.”

Craig Robinson, a former political director of the Iowa Republican Party, sees Santorum as gaining the most in Iowa from Huckabee’s decision.

“I would say Bachmann as well, but Bachmann’s not even to an exploratory stage yet, so it’s not like she can rush in there and actively seek out these votes,” Robinson says. “So I think it’s Santorum who’s going to benefit from this.”

Robinson also points out that Huckabee, who won the Iowa caucuses in 2008, could have a “significant” impact on the caucuses again this year if he chooses to endorse a candidate.

I remember hearing  in 2008 about some of the things Romney did to Huckabee from a Huckabee campaign insider, and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if Huck makes it his personal mission to end Romney's campaign.

Mitch Daniels Will Sign Bill to Defund Planned Parenthood

I think Mitch is doing a little pre-campaign positioning:

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels says he will sign a bill into law that revoked funding for the Indiana affiliate of the Planned Parenthood abortion business and bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Daniels’ decision puts into place one of the strongest pro-life bills in the history of the state and allows him a chance to repair the relationship he strained with pro-life voters last year with his proposed truce on social issues, including abortion, that could adversely affect him in any bid for the Republican nomination for president.

Daniels issued a statement about HEA 1210, which the Indiana General Assembly approved earlier in the week.

“I will sign HEA 1210 when it reaches my desk a week or so from now. I supported this bill from the outset, and the recent addition of language guarding against the spending of tax dollars to support abortions creates no reason to alter my position,” Daniels said. “The principle involved commands the support of an overwhelming majority of Hoosiers, as reflected in greater than 2:1 bipartisan votes in both legislative chambers.”

Daniels added that he “commissioned a careful review of access to services across the state and can confirm that all non-abortion services, whether family planning or basic women’s health, will remain readily available in every one of our 92 counties. In addition, I have ordered the Family and Social Services Administration to see that Medicaid recipients receive prompt notice of nearby care options. We will take any actions necessary to ensure that vital medical care is, if anything, more widely available than before.”

“Any organization affected by this provision can resume receiving taxpayer dollars immediately by ceasing or separating its operations that perform abortions,” he said.

I guess it's time for the media to turn their venom on Daniels now.

Romney Should Stop Exploring

Yesterday, on the fifth anniversary of Romneycare in Massachusetts, Mitt Romney announced the establishment of his presidential exploratory committee.  I think he should stop exploring.  It ain't gonna happen.  Mitt's not going to be president, and I frankly doubt he'll be the nominee.

Look at this CNN poll as reported by Dave Wiegel:

Trump's support comes largely from Romney, who falls to his lowest support in two years.
Huckabee 19%
Trump 19% (+9)
Palin 12%
Gingrich 11% (-3)
Romney 11% (-7)
Paul 7% (-1)
Bachmann 5% (+5)
Daniels 3%
Pawlenty 2% (-1)
Santorum 2% (-1)
Barbour * (-1)

Here's the field without Trump:
Huckabee 24%
Gingrich 16%
Palin 16%
Romney 16%
Paul 9%
Daniels 4%
Pawlenty 3%
Santorum 2%

Romney is banking on the GOP's bad habit of choosing "whoever's next" and since he gave John McCain the best run in 2008, he's "next". We don't want to make that mistake again.

At this point I'm almost hoping Donald Trump makes a serious run at it. With a GOP field this lackluster at least he'd add some excitement.

This is What Democracy Actually Looks Like

The morons who have gathered in Madison to bang drums and shout their antique union slogans at Gov. Walker claim that they are "what democracy looks like".  Hardly.  Here's what democracy actually looks like:

It was Wednesday, March 9, and Governor Walker had decided to visit the Wisconsin State Capitol before he headed off to give his “Ag Day” speech that afternoon.

Walker figured he had been very patient. Four weeks earlier he had proposed his budget repair bill, and he had the votes to pass it. But one week after that, all 14 Democratic state senators fled to Illinois to deny Republicans the quorum they thought necessary to hold a vote on the legislation. In the days that followed, top Republican legislators and senior aides to Walker spoke regularly with Democrats in an effort to forge a compromise—several times believing that they had reached a tentative understanding that would allow the senate to take up the controversial measure, only to have the agreement collapse. The more this happened the less likely a compromise seemed.

So, shortly before 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Walker addressed a meeting of the senate Republican caucus. It was time to end the standoff and move forward, he said. The world didn’t know it, but Republicans had been given the tools to do that two days earlier, in rulings from three nonpartisan bodies that allowed them to tweak the bill slightly and pass it with only a simple majority present in the senate. But Walker kept his comments general. He said that while Wisconsinites were divided about the wisdom of his proposals, there was widespread agreement that the stalemate had to end.

At a press conference that afternoon, a reporter asked Walker about a letter to him from senate minority leader Mark Miller. Walker had not received the letter—it was released to the media before it was delivered to his office. Miller offered two choices he knew would be rejected and said that if Walker did not meet his demands it would be clear the governor wanted to “keep lines of communications closed.”

It was a final act of bad faith from Miller. A few hours later, Republicans in the state senate moved swiftly to pass the tweaked bill. And two days later, Walker signed it.

It was over.

Of course, we do not have a democracy. We have a representative republic which means we don't make decisions by majority rule but choose people to represent us. We also don't make decisions based on who screams the loudest or bangs the biggest drum.  For all their noise and fury the assembled masses in Madison did little more than beclown themselves.

“Republicans have made a mockery of democracy,” said Representative Peter Barca, the Democratic leader in the state assembly.

On Thursday, Barca filed a legal challenge, alleging the vote had violated the Open Meetings law. But the case seems to have little chance of succeeding. The senate chief clerk, a nonpartisan official who offers parliamentary and legal advice to the chamber, wrote in an email to senators that the vote “appears to have satisfied the requirements of the rules and statutes.”

Those rules and statutes state that during a special session, under which the legislature has been operating for the past month, the only notice required is a posting on a bulletin board in the capitol. The Republicans did that. And then, just to be safe, they waited two hours, the minimum notice required under the Open Meetings law when it’s “impractical” to wait for 24 hours.

The absurdity of the Democrats’ outrage was too much. They weren’t merely wrong on a procedural point. They were accusing Republicans of “making a mockery of democracy,” operating like a “banana republic,” and, in former labor secretary Robert Reich’s words, conducting a “coup d’état.” All the while, Democrats were hiding in another state trying to prevent a newly inaugurated senate from holding a vote on vital state business.

But in the end, senate Republicans had found a way to vote. The Assembly passed the bill on Thursday. Scott Walker signed it into law on Friday.

And that is what democracy actually looks like.

Walker and Wisconsin won...period. The state will be better off for what happened with this bill. It may take a little time, but the positive effects will eventually become obvious.

And for those who fear that this will end Walker's career, Mitch Daniels in Indiana eliminated collective bargaining for public employee unions in his state by executive order. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth among the uneducated union masses, but what Daniels promised came true and he was re-elected with more than 60% of the vote.

Walker will be okay.  He still has nearly his entire term left.

Most Open GOP Field in 50 Years

Either nobody really wants the job, or Republicans just can't find anyone they really like:

There's nothing typical about this GOP field.

For more than half-a-century, the race for the Republican presidential nomination has always featured a clear front runner at this point in the campaign, according to a Gallup analysis out Monday. Not this time.

Those early Republican front-runners in past contests have had good odds, and have gone on to win the nomination in 8 out of 10 competitive Republican races since 1952.

While today Mike Huckabee has a slim lead among Republican and Republican-leaning voters with 18 percent of the vote, no one has made wide strides away from the pack. Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney are each the pick of 16 percent.

The 2008 election is the only case surveyed by Gallup in which the eventual nominee gained front-runner status late in the campaign cycle. In most elections, the nominee had netted that status by March.

The 2012 field's deviation from the familiar pattern of nominating the heir apparent could have consequences for fundraising and party cohesion beyond the race for the nomination, the analysis notes.

Let's see:

• Mitt Romney - Romneycare, part-time conservative
• Newt Gingrich - Baggage
• Sarah Palin - Baggage
• Mike Huckabee - Meh
• Rick Santorum - Can't win
• Ron Paul - Nuts
• Donald Trump - Seriously?  He could end up being the Ross Perot of 2012.
• Tim Pawlenty - Name recognition problem
• Mitch Daniels - Too willing to compromise
• Jon Huntsman - Who?
• Haley Barbour  - thick-as-molasses Southern accent may be a problem in the north.
• Herman Cain - Hate to say it, but I don't think America is going to be ready for another black president anytime soon.
• Michele Bachmann - You think Sarah Palin's been demonized, wait until you see what they do to Bachmann.
• Chris Christie - Has said numerous times he doesn't want to run in 2012.  I believe him.

Can someone other than these folks still jump into the fray and win the nomination?  I hope so.

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!

Scratch Mitch Daniels Off the 2012 List

He just folded in Indiana's battle with the unions. The Dems hadn't even made it out of state before he caved:

Gov. Mitch Daniels signaled this afternoon that Republicans should drop the right-to-work bill that has brought the Indiana House to a standstill for two days and imperiled other measures.

Daniels told reporters this afternoon that he expected House Democrats will return to work if the bill dies. It would be unfortunate if other bills are caught up in the turmoil, he said.

He will not send out state police to corral the Democrats, the Republican governor said.

The Democrat minority has right to express its views, he added.

The governor clung to his view that this is not the year to tackle right to work.

He's gotta show a lot more gumption than that if he wants any support in the GOP primaries. As far as I'm concerned, he's out of there.

The Donald To Speak at CPAC

The annual CPAC conference (conservative Woodstock) kicks off today and there will be a surprise appearance from The Donald:

Rumored presidential candidate Donald Trump will make a surprise visit to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington today. He plans to address the convention in the afternoon. The decision to attend CPAC was pushed by Trump’s longtime political advisor Roger Stone, and indicates the billionaire real estate mogul is becoming serious about seeking the Republican nomination for president next year.

Trump has been hinting at his desire to run for months. “For the first time in my life, I am absolutely thinking about it,” he told MSNBC in October. According to Newsmax, Trump is “telling friends he has decided he will definitely run.” And although he denied any involvement when someone began mysteriously polling New Hampshire residents about their thoughts on a Trump campaign, he still made sure to tell Fox News that he heard the results were “amazing.”

Trump has a lot of good ideas, and he's been very good on some key issues. However, I would worry a little bit about turning his ego loose in the White House.

The Donald isn't the only potential 2012 candidate planning to speak at CPAC.  There are 14 more:

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson,  Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, and Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton.

Of course, some of those people either have no plans to run or can't possibly win despite many attempts (see Ron Paul).  The one most conspicuous name missing is Sarah Palin who has been regularly invited but has never attended a CPAC gathering.  And count on Ron Paul to do well, or even win, the straw poll.   The Paulinistas are unusually good at stacking these meaningless polls.

Michele Bachmann opened with a bang. Here "Hu's your daddy" line is already getting rave reviews from the pundits.

Can a Skinflint Win the Presidency?

That's the question Michael Barone is asking today about Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. Read his profile here. I like Daniels a lot and he could be the guy who saves us from Mitt Romney or somebody worse.

The GOP 17

Republican voters will have a lot of choices...for at least a couple of primaries...when they go to pick the 2012 nominee who will face Barack Obama (or perhaps Hillary Clinton).  Here's the list from Washington Whispers:

The A-Team Nine

- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the front-runner, largely because he was the runner-up to Sen. John McCain in 2008.

- Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has recently made a name for herself by endorsing winning Tea Party candidates.

- Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a social conservative in his second term.

- Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a fiscal conservative in his second term.

- Mike Huckabee, a Fox host and former 2008 presidential candidate.

- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

- South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a conservative and darling of the party for defeating former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in 2004.

- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose budget cutting in his first year has impressed many in GOP ranks who want him to apply his touch to Washington.

- Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, already running and showing his conservative side.

The Eight Long Shots

- Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, a hero to fiscal conservatives.

- South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, a Palinesque conservative who's helped steer the U.S. Senate to the right.

- Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the gadfly 2008 candidate who kept a very loyal following.

- South Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley, who hasn't even won yet but is being heralded as the new Sarah Palin.

- Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush who has rejected a run but who still gets kudos for being the "smart Bush" for his successful two terms in Florida.

- Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who'd be the social conservative in the race.

- Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, a foreign policy hawk who conservatives adore.

- Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal whose effort to protect his shores from the Gulf Oil Spill won him notoriety lost when he gave a lackluster national political address in 2009.

Let me run through the names:

• Mitt Romney - The GOP has a bad habit of nominating "whoever's next", and that would be Romney.  But he's still got the Mormon problem...and the personality problem.  He's also the author of Romneycare, the MA version of Obamacare that's proving to be a fiscal nightmare.
• Sarah Palin - Quitting the governor's job in Alaska, no matter how justified, will kill her chances. That and the caricature that has been created by the media. 
• Haley Barbour - I like him.  He was a great RNC Chairman, has been a good governor through some pretty tough times for his state (Katrina hit MS hard), and is a very smart politician.  His deep South accent won't help him in certain parts of the country.
• Mitch Daniels - Could be a strong candidate, though he's not some major name recognition work to do.
• Mike Huckabee - I'm not convinced he wants to give up his Fox TV gig to get back into a fight he probably can't win.
• Newt Gingrich - Good idea man but carrying way too much baggage.
• John Thune - Impressive guy but will have to get a lot better known.
• Chris Christie - Won't run.  Too soon.  He needs to show what he can do in New Jersey first.
• Tim Pawlenty - I like him, but another guy who is not well known outside of Minnesota.
• Mike Pence - Solid conservative who could be a tough candidate if he can get the media to pay attention to him.
• Jim DeMint - I doubt DeMint will run.  Very conservative but not that well known.
• Ron Paul - Will run a vanity campaign, but not a chance of winning anything.
• Nikki Haley - Hasn't done anything yet.  If she ran she'd be another fad candidate and we don't need that.
• Jeb Bush - Great guy, great governor, bad last name.
• Rick Santorum - Unlikely to get far in the primaries.
• John Bolton - As I said the other day, there aren't enough adult diapers in all the Wal-Marts in the country to handle the liberals who'd lose control if Bolton became president.
• Bobby Jindal - Very smart guy who at this point would probably be a better VP candidate.

Four-Way Tie for GOP 2012 Nomination

From Public Policy Polling:

Raleigh, N.C. – Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and Mike Huckabee continue to dominate the early field of potential Republican challengers to President Barack Obama, splitting 87% of the vote, with each getting between 21 and 23%.

Huckabee currently has 23% to Romney’s 22%, Gingrich and Palin at 21%, Ron Paul at
4%, and unnamed others at 2%, with 7% undecided.

And I'm not excited about any of them.

Clarus Research Group has the numbers a little bit differently:

A new nationwide survey of Republican voters finds that support for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to win the GOP’s 2012 presidential nomination has fallen by one-third since March, sliding from 18 points to 12 points. Palin is now running in fourth place for the nomination behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (26%), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (21%), and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (14%).

Time for Mitch Daniels and Tim Pawlenty to get moving.

A Look At How Obamacare Will Affect One State

That state is Indiana, your typical midwestern flyover country state, but what will happen there will be echoed all over the country. Gov. Mitch Daniels has written a piece for the Wall Street Journal outlining what will have to happen in his state:

As if governors these days don't have enough on their plates. Now that ObamaCare has become law, there's a whole new to-do list for my state:

1) Plan for the termination of our Healthy Indiana Plan. This is the program that's currently providing health insurance to 50,000 low-income Hoosiers. With its health savings account-style personal accounts, it has been enormously popular among its participants. I hope those folks will do all right when they are pitched into Medicaid.

2) Start preparing voters for a state tax increase. The axe won't fall until someone else is governor. But when we are forced to expand Medicaid to one in every four citizens, the cost will add several hundred million dollars to the budget.

WSJ Symposium on ObamaCare

Mitch Daniels: We Good Europeans
Mike Pence: This Law Will Not Stand
Phil Gramm: Resistance Is Not Futile
Timothy P. Cahill: Massachusetts Is Our Future
Bobby Jindal: Persistence Is the Key

3) Check to see if Indiana should drop its health insurance plans and dump its government workers into the exchanges. Paying the new tax penalty might actually be cheaper for the state, as it will be for many private firms. I'm not certain the same rule applies to government as to business, but since no member of Congress read this entire bill before the vote, I don't feel embarrassed about not knowing.

4) Ramp up our job retraining programs to handle those who will be fired by our medical device companies, student loan providers, and small businesses as they wrestle with new taxes, penalties, or in the student loan case, outright nationalization of their business.

5) Call the state's attorney general to see if we can join one of the lawsuits to overturn ObamaCare. Yes, it's a long shot. But why not try?

6) Investigate an offset to all this extra cost. We may no longer need the Department of Insurance since insurers will now be operating as regulated utilities under the thumb of the federal government.

It's discouraging that all of this could have been avoided. Congress could have done what Republicans should suggest now: Shift to a system that allows individuals—not businesses—to buy health insurance tax free. They could also create tax credits for buying health insurance based on income and health status to guarantee everyone coverage and encourage medical care and insurance competition. Republicans should push to lower barriers for buying insurance across state lines, create incentives for states to repeal mandates, and limit frivolous lawsuits that increase the price of insurance.

But for the moment, our federal overlords have ruled. We better start adjusting to our new status as good Europeans.

Multiply that times 50 (or 57 if you're Obama) and you can see what America's future now looks like.

Health Savings Accounts Are Working in Indiana

Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana, who is looking more and more like a GOP 2012 presidential candidate, writes in the Wall Street Journal about the successful program of health savings accounts which has reduced costs in Indiana and insured state employees without raising taxes:

As Washington prepares to revisit the subject of health-care reform, perhaps some fresh experience from Middle America would be of value.

When I was elected governor of Indiana five years ago, I asked that a consumer-directed health insurance option, or Health Savings Account (HSA), be added to the conventional plans then available to state employees. I thought this additional choice might work well for at least a few of my co-workers, and in the first year some 4% of us signed up for it.

In Indiana's HSA, the state deposits $2,750 per year into an account controlled by the employee, out of which he pays all his health bills. Indiana covers the premium for the plan. The intent is that participants will become more cost-conscious and careful about overpayment or overutilization.

Unused funds in the account—to date some $30 million or about $2,000 per employee and growing fast—are the worker's permanent property. For the very small number of employees (about 6% last year) who use their entire account balance, the state shares further health costs up to an out-of-pocket maximum of $8,000, after which the employee is completely protected.

The HSA option has proven highly popular. This year, over 70% of our 30,000 Indiana state workers chose it, by far the highest in public-sector America. Due to the rejection of these plans by government unions, the average use of HSAs in the public sector across the country is just 2%.

What we, and independent health-care experts at Mercer Consulting, have found is that individually owned and directed health-care coverage has a startlingly positive effect on costs for both employees and the state.

Read the rest of the piece for examples of how well this has worked for Indiana.

Health savings accounts have been proposed for years but rarely implemented because it does something that government hates - it puts people in control of their own health care expenses. When the money you're spending is your own you start being a little more careful about how you spend it. You shop for deals, don't spend it if you don't really need it, and let the competitive market work for you. It's the removal of the health consumer from the real costs which has cause the soaring prices we see today.

I remember when we had an HMO with a $5 co-payment for doctor visits. We didn't hesitate to take the kids in with every sniffle because it cost practically nothing. Had we been paying for these visits out of a health savings account we probably would have been a little less quick to run to the doctor would have used the services only when we felt it was really important, and might even have shopped for services among different doctors. All of that would have reduced our usage of the health care system and therefore the total costs. And I don't think our family's health would have suffered.

It's a good idea and needs to be used on a wider scale.

Nothing Good Happens After Midnight

That's a refrain I've often used with my kids when they wanted to stay out somewhere beyond their midnight curfew, and it could also apply to what happened last night in the Senate. Our government now writes 2,000+ page bills in private and votes on these same bills that no one has read in the middle of the night when they hope no one is watching. This is what the Democrats have sunk to.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issued this statement:

“Tonight marks the culmination of a long national debate. Passions have run high. And, that’s appropriate because the bill we are voting on tonight will impact the life of every American. It will shape the future of our country. It will determine whether our children can afford the nation they inherit. It is one of the most consequential votes any of us will ever take. And none of us take it lightly.

“But make no mistake: if the people who wrote this bill were proud of it, they wouldn’t be forcing this vote in the dead of night

“Here are just some of the deals we’ve noticed:

“$100 million for an unnamed health care facility at an unnamed university somewhere in the United States — the bill doesn’t say where — and no one will even step forward to claim it.

“ One state out of 50 gets to expand Medicaid at no cost to itself — while taxpayers in the other 49 states pick up the tab.

“The same Senator who cut that deal secured another one that benefits a single insurance company – just one insurance company – based in his state.

“Do the supporters of this bill know all this? Do they think it’s a fair deal for their states, for the rest of the country?

“The fact is, a year after this debate started few people could have imagined that this is how it would end — with a couple of cheap deals and a rushed vote at one o’clock in the morning. But that’s where we are.

“And Americans are wondering tonight: How did this happen?

“So I’d like to take a moment to explain to the American people how we got here, to explain what happened — and what’s happening now.

“Everyone in this chamber agrees we need health care reform. The question is how?

“Some of us have taken the view that the American people want us to tackle the cost issue, and we’ve proposed targeted steps to do it. Our friends on the other side have taken the opposite approach.

“And the result has been just what you’d expect.

“The final product is a mess — and so is the process that’s brought us here to vote on a bill that the American people overwhelmingly oppose.

“Any challenge of this size and scope has always been dealt with on a bipartisan basis. The senior Senator from Maine made that point at the outset of the debate, and reminded us all how these things have been handled throughout history..

“The Social Security Act of 1935 was approved by all but six members of the Senate. The Medicare and Medicaid Acts of 1965 were approved by all but 21. All but eight senators voted for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

“Americans believe that on issues of this importance, one party should never be allowed to force its will on the other half of the nation. The proponents of this bill felt differently.

“In a departure from history, Democrat leaders put together a bill so heavy with tax hikes, Medicare cuts and government intrusion, that, in the end their biggest problem wasn’t convincing Republicans to support it, it was convincing the Democrats.

“In the end, the price of passing this bill wasn’t achieving the reforms Americans were promised.

“It was a blind call to make history, even if it was a historical mistake — which is exactly what this bill will be if it’s passed. Because, in the end, this debate isn’t about differences between two parties, it’s about a $2.3 trillion dollar, 2,733-page health care reform bill that does not reform health care and, in fact, makes its price go up.

If many in the rest of the country feel the same anger I do over this, this day marks the end of Democrat control of Congress. We just have to wait until the election.

For those who still think there's hope this bill won't pass because some Democrat in the House may have a twinge of conscious over abortion or be angered at the lack of a public option, forget it. It will pass. Putting your hopes in the morals or principles of Democrats is a lost cause.

Some Democrats will be given the opportunity to vote against it to try and save their seats, but only as many as Nancy Pelosi can spare. This will be a bare majority vote.

But it will pass.