Pawlenty in, Daniels out

A blue-tinged Tim Pawlenty has announced that he's nominating himself Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in the aptly-titled, "Tim Pawlenty - A Time for Truth (Preview of Monday's Announcement)." The video has the now-predictable Pawlenty video editing flash. Sadly, no matter how many times they do this, Tim Pawlenty is still taking part in the Republican presidential primary and not a Ridley Scott movie.

At the other end of the Republican campaign editing bay is Mitch Daniels, who announced this weekend that he won't be running because he didn't have his wife's support for President. Mitch is the first and third husband of Cheri Daniels, who has apparently never been much of a fan of Mitch's political aspirations beyond blowing up the debt as George W. Bush's OMB director.

What does this all mean for the right's field? Bill Kristol thinks the field will continue to expand later this year:

“It would be unfair to call the current field a vacuum. But it doesn't exactly represent an overflowing of political talent. And insofar as politics abhors even a near-vacuum, others are bound to get in. I now think the odds are better than 50-50 that both Rick Perry and Paul Ryan run. I also now think they (and others -- Sarah Palin, Chris Christie, John Bolton) may not feel they have to decide until after Labor Day -- or maybe even until October or even November. The field could well remain open and fluid until Thanksgiving.”

I don't see any reason why any candidate not currently in the race would rush right in now. The dissatisfaction with the current crop of candidates is only likely to increase over time, making the appeal of a Palin, Christie, Bolton, Ryan or Perry seem greater. I'm certainly not convinced that the field is done (assuming every candidate with an exploratory committee ends up running). Someone else will get in, as the only commonality between a field of people like Romney, Ron Paul, Gingrich, Pawlenty, Bachmann and Herm Cain is that none of them will beat Barack Obama. Read More......

Romney leads in NH while Pawlenty drops 5 after he announces

The newest WMUR Granite state poll is out and it shows that Mitt Romney is maintaining a big lead in his adopted home state. Meanwhile former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty who posted a respectable 7% showing before he announced in February is now at 2% (PDF) in the latest poll behind fringe candidates Donald Trump, Ron Paul and Michelle Bachmann.

Pawlenty has been hitting the trail and meeting voters for about a month and his standing in the granite state has only deteriorated. Could he be the first serious candidate to drop out?

WMUR Granite state poll
May 4, 2011

Mitt Romney 36%(40%) -4
Donald Trump 11%(3%) +8
Rudolph Giuliani 7%(10%) -3
Mike Huckabee 6%(7%) -1
Ron Paul 6%(5%) +1
Sarah Palin 4%(6%) -2
Newt Gingrich 4%(6%) -2
Michelle Bachmann 4%(Wasn't polled previously)
Tim Pawlenty 2%(7%) -5
Mitch Daniels 2%(0%) +2 Read More......

Daniels says he cannot debate Obama on Foreign Policy

In a mostly positive introduction to Mitch Daniels in the National Review, Daniels admits that he's probably not ready to debate President Obama on foreign policy.

He was asked if he were ready to debate President Obama on foreign policy. “Probably not.” (He is candid.)

I can't imagine that it's an answer the neo-conservative wing of the party would like. Read More......

Barbour will not run for president

Via Reid Wilson on Twitter, Haley Barbour has issued a statement:

"I will not be a candidate for president next year."

Both Dave Weigel and Josh Kraushaar think this means Mitch Daniels is now likely to run for the GOP nomination.

Update by MBH:
Barbour's full statement can be found here. Read More......

Not everyone hates Mitch Daniels

Well that didn't take very long. After a short blog post this afternoon about how social conservatives and economic conservatives are finding problems with a potential Mitch Daniels presidential run, beltway reporter Jonathan Martin pens an ode to Daniels from the village. Mitch Daniel does have an energetic base and it's located firmly inside elite conservative organizations and magazines.

The Indiana governor has been showered with favorable coverage from political thinkers and analysts in recent months, most of which heaped praise on his thoughtful and principled approach to governing while celebrating his serious yet down-to-earth mien.

...

Daniels is hardly the first presidential prospect to be greeted with bouquets from the cognoscenti as the Last Honest Man in politics. There is a long, bipartisan tradition of White House aspirants who play the truth-teller role and they almost invariably receive better reviews in print than at the polls.

Bruce Babbitt, Paul Tsongas, Ross Perot, John Anderson, Lamar Alexander and John McCain in 2000 all won plaudits from elites for their willingness to speak hard truths about the real problems facing the country rather than just pandering to the partisan rabble.

...

He went to all the right schools (Bachelors, with honors, at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School and a law degree, with honors, from Georgetown), learned at the knee of a political Wise Man (veteran Sen. Richard Lugar) headed up a think tank (Hudson Institute), was a top executive at a Fortune 500 company (Eli Lilly), and for two terms has been a governor, where, as the mandarins’ formulation goes, all the real policy innovations take place.

...

“He is a Republican who had never heard of 9/12, Glenn Beck’s tea-party group, before The Economist mentioned it to him,” exclaimed the traditionally right-leaning British-based magazine, all but giving him the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for their elite, trans-Atlantic audience.

No mention of how George W. Bush's first budget director who oversaw the budget that blew up the deficit during the Bush presidency would run as a budget hawk or how the governor who tried to pass a tax hike for those making over $100k a year would run against Obama's plan to take the top tax rate back to pre-Bush levels. But he is apparently what the conservatives elites want. A contradiction and a muddled argument when extremism and purity reign supreme in the GOP.

Color me skeptical that he can make it through a Republican primary. How can he when even liberals can make arguments against Daniels that would tie conservatives supporting Daniels in knots? Read More......

Everyone hates Mitch Daniels

Does everyone hate Mitch Daniels?

I was having a conversation with a libertarian Republican a few weeks ago who laid out the case against Mitch Daniels. "How can Republicans make a case that they learned their lessons about fiscal responsibility when they nominate George W. Bush's budget director? How can Republicans make a case against Obama's desired policy of returning to pre-Bush tax cut levels for those making over $250,000 when their nominee Mitch Daniel's proposed a tax hike for anyone making over $100,000 in Indiana?"

I'm not sure these arguments have been internalized by Mitch Daniels fans ahead of the Republican primary filled with tea-party voters but the social conservatives have definitely sharpened their blades against Mithc Daniels. Yesterday, the social con American Principles Project blasted out a press release about Mitch Daniel's inclusion at CPAC.

"Governor Daniels' selection is an affront to the millions of conservatives who believe that social issues such as abortion and traditional marriage are non-negotiable."

Read More......

No 'new tone' at CPAC

TPM has a story up about a panel on CPAC called "Ground Zero Mosuq: Second Wave of the 9/11 attacks."

At the Conservative Political Action Conference next month -- the one decried as being "infiltrated" by the Muslim Brotherhood by the likes of sharia alarmist Frank Gaffney -- an event will be held titled, "The Ground Zero Mosque: The Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks."

The event is a movie premiere, hosted by mosque opposition leader Pamela Geller and her partner Robert Spencer. It will be followed by "a question and action and strategy session on how to stop the Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero."

I think we can note that even conservatives think that Pam Geller's brand is a toxic form of bigotry and she's dabbled in birtherism and she spread Malcom X was Obama's father smear. Here's the thing, a series of Republican presidential candidates are about to speak at CPAC. You expect partisanship at events like this but to conflate an Islamic center in Manhattan to a repeat of the 9/11 attacks is not only extreme but offensive. But this is what Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, Tim Pawlenty, Mike Pence, Mitt Romney and John Thune have signed up for in February. So much for Republican and the new tone. Read More......