Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels for President?

By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

You probably don't know this about me, but I'm a closet fan of Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. I know there are others out there like me, but I haven't found them yet. Here are three interesting things he's done lately:

1. Along with several other governors, he cosigned a letter to the Congressional committees investigating Toyota which he paraphrased to the local Fox affiliate as saying: "Let's have the recall, fines if necessary, but they're ganging up, it seems highly suspicious given the government went into the car business and here they are beating up one of their direct competitors." He's got a point, that the government now owns GM, one of Toyota's competitors, and it appears they have a conflict of interest when it comes to shutting down Toyota's sales. I'm a former Camry owner, and of course I'm concerned about safety--that of Toyota drivers and the rest of us on the road with them--but we wouldn't be talking about a conflict of interest if the government hadn't taken over GM. One more reason the government should stay out of the market.

2. He told Dan Balz of the Washington Post today that he's "open" to a run for the White House in 2012. Great news! Here's the best quote from the interview, in which he talks about voters' concern about fiscal responsibility and the size of government hitting a tipping point:

"Are we still a country where people would prefer freedom, personal autonomy, with the risks and responsibilities that go with it, or do we want to socialize all the risks we can and settle for what I think is the false security of statism and so forth?" he asked. "I think those questions have got to be presented by somebody."

Even more interesting, the AP ran a story on the Post interview, and I first found that story not at the Washington Post, but on the pages of the Purdue University student newspaper, the Exponent. I think a lot of young people are fans of his, if you take a look at his My Man Mitch website, or his facebook page that has 10,000 friends. He's right up there with Ron Paul in terms of the youth vote.

3. Buried in the Exponent piece is a little nugget: that Daniels was invited to be the keynote speaker at CPAC last weekend, but turned down the invitation. Doesn't say why. I guess that's when they booked Glenn Beck instead.

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