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Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels on Tuesday dismissed suggestions that Richard Mourdock's upset victory over incumbent Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) last week was a "tea party phenomenon."

Last night, the President spent an hour trying to erase our memory of the last 8,760. In his last State of the Union before voters decide whether to return his "change," President Obama continued to promote the same ideas that have led to 8.5% unemployment, $15 trillion in debt, and the marginalization of traditional values. Unfortunately, his government-as-the-great-equalizer approach hasn't worked in the last three years--and there's no reason to believe it will now. "We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number of Americans barely get by," he...

Americans Don't Want a 'Truce' on Social Issues Gov. Mitch Daniels is misinterpreting the voting public. By RICHARD LAND Indiana governor and likely Republican presidential candidate Mitch Daniels has suggested that Americans call a "truce" on divisive social issues until our precarious financial house is back in order. Many pundits have praised the idea, typically thrilled that a Republican leader seems willing to jettison, even temporarily, strong positions on abortion or gay marriage. But social conservatives are mad, and rightly so. Throughout the 1980s and '90s, social conservatives were the foot soldiers for Republican victories—only to see their issues bargained...

Many months ago, looking at the way the presidential race was shaping up, I made a prediction. I said that Mitt Romney would be the overwhelming Republican favorite—right up until the voting began. From that point forward, I said, the odds of his winning the nomination would fall steadily.Thus far that prediction looks solid. So let me make another—a short-term prediction this time—and put it on the record: Tonight President Obama will deliver his State of the Union speech.Then Indiana’s Governor Mitch Daniels will give the Republican response.And within 24 hours the Draft Mitch Daniels movement will be the biggest...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: You know, the response to the State of the Union last night is getting more positive reaction than the State of the Union speech itself. Mitch Daniels. And I have to tell you, other than his opening when he started, I said, "Oh, no, no, no, please." Then I started thanking God that nobody was watching 'cause it's a response that's, you know, 15 minutes after the State of the Union speech. But after he got through the open, it was good. It was really, really good. Mitch Daniels was really, really good in his response last...

Big Labor: Indiana unions, opposed to becoming the first right-to-work state in the Rust Belt, may disrupt Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis. Their unnecessary roughness will cost the Hoosiers needed jobs. On Friday, as the Indiana Senate was scheduled to take up legislation supported by Gov. Mitch Daniels to make Indiana the 23rd right-to-work state, Indiana unions considered copying the disruptive and coercive tactics of Occupy Wall Street to disrupt arguably America's premier sporting event, the Super Bowl, to be held in Indianapolis on Feb. 5. As in Wisconsin, where embattled GOP Gov. Scott Walker faces a recall election over...

If any Republican presidential candidates are looking for last-minute advice before the Iowa caucuses, Sarah Palin, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour and Herman Cain have some thoughts. The Washington Post asked the four politicians Palin, the 2008 GOP vice-presidential nominee; Daniels, the Indiana governor who passed on a presidential run; Barbour, the Mississippi governor who also passed on a White House bid; and Cain, who suspended his campaign last month for tips. Barbour wrote it should be all about President Obama and his policies: "If I were campaigning, I'd talk about how his policies have made economic growth and job creation...

The Illinois legislature proposed a tax package that is designed to keep the $CME and $CBOE from leaving the state. Is it enough? Indiana governor Mitch Daniels has said that being next to Illinois is like living next door to the Simpson's. The bill they will pass will tax roughly 27% of exchange transactions. The rationale for taxing them is the transactions initiate and take place within state borders. That assumption is incorrect. While 15% of the exchanges transactions take place using open outcry on the floor, most of those transactions initiate from all other points in the world. If...

INDIANAPOLIS -- There was positive economic news for Indiana on two fronts Tuesday, including some found money that could eventually result in a tax refund. State revenue is still pacing well ahead of projections, and the state found $300 million that it didn't know it had, RTV6's Norman Cox reported. The state collected about $10 million more than revenue projections in November, Gov. Mitch Daniels said. Tax collection was about $42 million higher than the same period last year. Daniels said corporate income taxes paid by e-check were mistakenly put into a holding account and weren't credited to the General...

Yesterday on CNN’s State of the Union, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels said the following about the current GOP presidential field: I don't think they're yet talking about the things…that have a lot of zeros attached to them, the ones that are threatening to kill not just an economy but the entire idea of America, the idea of upward mobility from the bottom and tomorrow is better than today…I'll tell you what's bothering me a little bit [is] the president is clearly in very desperate political shape. And it seems more clear every day. And I worry a little bit, ironically,...

I can’t believe I’ve never heard this song before. It reminds you of what’s at stake and what the fight is all about. I just thought I would share with everyone, Like myself, who hasn’t heard it either. God Bless Charlie Daniels And God Bless America

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels defended his description of Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme" Tuesday, wading into a debate about the popular entitlement program that has enveloped the Republican primary. Daniels describes the program as such in his yet-to-be-released book, Keeping the Republic, echoing a critique that Texas Gov. Rick Perry made in his own book last year. Leading Perry challenger and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has seized on the "Ponzi scheme" comments , arguing that Perry needlessly "scared seniors" by describing the program in that way.  But Daniels sought to downplay the significance of the descriptor Tuesday morning...

Republican fiscal conservatives are coalescing around a candidate for president — and he currently isn't in the race. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Speaker of the House John Boehner, House Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan have all encouraged House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan to run against Obama, The Weekly Standard reports. The policy wonk, known for "the Ryan plan" to eliminate the federal debt through dramatic spending cuts and reforms, has to date shown little interest in running. But the conservative magazine says his wife is "on board" if he decides to enter...

the times Daniels OKs bonuses up to $1,000 for each state employee By Dan Carden dan.carden@nwi.com, (317) 637-9078 | Posted: Friday, July 15, 2011 10:45 am INDIANAPOLIS | State employees will be paid a bonus of up to $1,000 each for their efforts in helping Indiana amass a $1.2 billion budget surplus. Gov. Mitch Daniels authorized the one-time payment on Friday to recognize employees he said have spent years doing more with less. "There's not a state in the nation where state employees are more committed to efficiency and care with tax dollars than Indiana," Daniels said. The "efficiency dividend...

...[Indiana] State officials sent school leaders a memo April 25 telling them that instead of cursive writing, students will be expected to become proficient in keyboard use. The Times of Munster reports the memo says schools may continue to teach cursive as a local standard, or they may decide to stop teaching cursive altogether... ...'The skill of handwriting is a dying art,' [East Allen County Schools Superintendent Karyle Green] said. 'Everything isn’t handwritten anymore.'... Winning: The key board wins as students will no longer be assessed on the handwriting style in third and fourth grade From now on, second-graders will...

Dallas Cowboys receiver Roy Williams is going to court to get back the $76,000 engagement ring he gave to a former beauty pageant winner. In February, Williams proposed to his girlfriend, Brooke Daniels. When she turned him down, Daniels didn't return the ring. According to Williams' affidavit that was filed in a Texas court last week, he asked for the ring back but was told by Daniels that she had lost it. An insurance investigation later revealed that Daniels' father was in possession of the ring.

A federal judge in Indianapolis on Friday blocked part of an Indiana law that cut off public funding for the state’s Planned Parenthood outlets because they provide abortions, the Associated Press reported. U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, who was appointed in 2010 by President Barack Obama, granted the family planning organization an injunction that voids the portion of the Indiana law, recently signed by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels. The Indiana law, which accounted for about $1.4 million and was challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood, would have been the first to deny Medicaid funds to...

INDIANAPOLIS -- A federal judge on Friday blocked the parts of Indiana's tough new abortion law that cuts off most of Planned Parenthood's public funding in the state because the organization provides abortions. U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt granted Planned Parenthood's request for an injunction in striking down the law's defunding provision as unconstitutional, and siding with federal Medicaid officials who have said states cannot disqualify Medicaid providers merely because they also offer abortions. The U.S. Justice Department also had filed a brief siding with Planned Parenthood, with attorneys saying the law restricts Medicaid recipients' freedom to choose their...

The U.S. Justice Department entered the court battle over a tough new Indiana abortion law that disqualifies Planned Parenthood of Indiana from the Medicaid program, siding with the organization in its request Thursday for a court order blocking the statute as unconstitutional. In a brief filed electronically after the close of business, Justice Department attorneys said U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt should grant Planned Parenthood's request for an injunction because it blocks Medicaid recipients' freedom to choose the provider of their choice. The law signed May 10 by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels cuts off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood...

WASHINGTON — The Health and Human Services Department is telling the state of Indiana that its Medicaid plan, which bans funding to Planned Parenthood, is illegal and must be changed. In a letter sent to Indiana's Medicaid director, and obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, Medicaid Administrator Donald M. Berwick says Indiana's plan will improperly bar Medicaid beneficiaries from receiving services. Berwick writes that federal law requires Medicaid beneficiaries to be able to obtain services from any provider qualified to provide services.

Mitch Daniels has wrapped up his "To be or not to be" routine, and, according to Paul Rahe, left the GOP looking like a hamlet without a prince. Paul is upset. I'm less so. As I said on the radio some months back, one should never underestimate the Republican Party's ability to screw up its presidential nomination. The GOP had a grand night last November only because the entire party establishment was more or less absent from the 2010 election dynamic. It would be unreasonable to expect that luck to hold, and a presidential year requires a single frontman for...

If Mitch Daniels created room in the 2012 presidential race for a nationally-known fiscal conservative dedicated to fighting the new Red (Ink) Menace, it won’t be Paul Ryan. Expressing his disappointment over the lost opportunity for a “great addition” to the primary debate, Ryan insisted on subtraction on his behalf. Ryan tells David Gregory that he can do more good for fiscal conservatism from his perch as chair of the House Budget Committee than he can in a dark-horse presidential bid — and that he’s not leaving any doors open or being coy. “Well look – I’ve been very clear...

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said early Sunday that he won't run for president because of family considerations, narrowing the field in the race for the GOP nomination. "In the end, I was able to resolve every competing consideration but one," Daniels said, disclosing his decision in an e-mail to supporters. "The interests and wishes of my family, is the most important consideration of all. If I have disappointed you, I will always be sorry."

Washington – Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has informed supporters he will not seek the Republican White House nomination. The New York Times reported early Sunday, citing an email message Daniels sent to supporters that read, "In the end, I was able to resolve every competing consideration but one," Daniels wrote.

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller on Friday joined the chorus of Hoosiers protesting a controversial Fourth Amendment ruling recently decided by the Indiana Supreme Court. Zoeller released a statement saying he will support a rehearing of the case due to concerns that the court ruled too broadly when it found citizens have no right under common law to reasonably resist police who unlawfully enter their homes. The Barnes v. State ruling came last week and was the first major opinion penned by Justice Steven David – Gov. Mitch Daniels’ appointment. “We believe however that a right to resist...

With friends like Conor with one N, Mitch Daniels probably doesn't need enemies within the conservative base. Everything is upside down in the Republican primaries. The GOP establishment is rallying behind a principled candidate with a proven conservative track record. That's upsetting the conservative base: on talk radio and right wing blogs, they concede that the man in question governs as a staunch conservative, but insist his candidacy isn't viable because he lacks charisma and electability. Gee, Daniels is making headlines, again. He has a real gift for that. Indiana Republican governor Mitch Daniels was hit in the forehead by...

Mitch Daniels knocked in head at gym By: Maggie Haberman May 20, 2011 03:44 PM EDT An accident at the gym left Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels with 16 stitches on his forehead on Friday, his office announced. Daniels, who is weighing a run for the White House, was standing near a door at the National Institute for Fitness and Sport in Indianapolis, and "the door suddenly swung open and struck the governor in the forehead," his office said in a statement. "He was treated and released and is recovering at home."

During his 2003 run for governor, an Indiana newspaper reported that Mitch Daniels supported a form of an individual health insurance mandate. An item in the South Bend Tribune from October, 23, 2003, on a campaign stop Daniels made to a health clinic, reported: The candidate said he favors a universal health care system that would move away from employee-based health policies and make it mandatory for all Americans to have health insurance. Daniels envisioned one scenario in which residents could certify their coverage when paying income taxes and receive a tax exemption that would cover the cost. "We really...

I am not really sure what is wrong with Mitch Daniels. Two years ago, you would not have found a bigger Mitch Daniels booster in the United States than yours truly. He had bucked national trends to win an landslide re-election and was doing all the right things to demonstrate administrative competence, which is something our party badly needed to demonstrate after the last two years of the Bush administration. Then he started saying crap like this, courtesy of Jenn Rubin...

The very fact that the Arab American Institute is so head over heels for Mitch Daniels automatically sends up a red flag of alarm.Key excerpts from the AAI article: ["...Most recently, some prospective candidates have been engaging in a crass effort to take advantage of the equally ill-conceived fear surrounding what is being called “Shariah creep” (an imaginary ploy allegedly by Muslims to gradually supplant the Constitution with Islamic law)." "For example, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has shut down a Minnesota banking program which allows potential homeowners’ mortgages to be in compliance with basic tenets of Islamic law, despite the program’s initial driving force being...

May's results are in. Sarah Palin wins again. PALIN 1019 (32.04%) CAIN 672 (21.13%) PAUL, RON 350 (11.01%) DANIELS 277 (8.71%) PAWLENTY 207 (6.51%) BACHMANN 121 (3.81%) BOLTON 111 (3.49%) ROMNEY 99 (3.11%) PAUL, RAND 75 (2.36%) GINGRICH 66 (2.08%) JOHNSON 39 (1.23%) HUCKABEE 38 (1.19%) SANTORUM 33 (1.04%) TRUMP 25 (0.79%) GIULIANI 24 (0.75%) HUNTSMAN 24 (0.75%) 3180 VOTES CAST

Mitch Daniels has not yet declared that he will run for the Republican nomination for president. In truth, he is an unlikely nominee, despite the half-hearted cheerleading he has enjoyed from the likes of Fox News and National Review, who appear to have latched onto him in lieu of their first love, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. It has been reported that the Bush family is supporting the current Indiana governor and former budget director for the Bush 43 White House, presumably because they understand that neither the nation nor the party has any appetite for a third President Bush...

When Mitch Daniels ran for governor of Indiana in 2004, a friend and videographer got the idea of filming the candidate in vidéo vérité style as he traveled around the state in his Indiana-made RV. In both his campaigns for governor—in 2004, when he won a close race, and in 2008, when he won reelection against the Obama tide in an 18-point landslide—Daniels visited each of Indiana’s 92 counties at least three times, appearing in places that hadn’t seen a statewide candidate in generations, or ever. If he wasn’t riding the RV, he came to town on his custom-built Harley...

The single most important judicial issue in Indiana is the ongoing debate over the state’s method for appointing appellate judges. It’s not much of a debate, actually, thanks in part to Daniels. Indiana uses a form of the Missouri Plan, the commission-based method for choosing judges that was designed by Progressive Era lawyers to put “experts” in charge of judicial selection. The “experts,” of course, are lawyers. When the issue was in front of Daniels he took the worst possible approach. In 2009, overwhelming majorities of the Indiana General Assembly (88–3 in the House, 35–15 in the Senate) approved legislation...

“This is the most open scramble on the Republican side since 1940 when Wendell Willkie came out of the woodwork and swept the field,” Will said. “I think — people are complaining this is not off to a brisk start. I think that’s wrong. I think we know with reasonable certainty that standing up there on the West front of the Capitol on Jan. 20, 2013 will be one of three people: Obama, [former Minnesota Gov. Tim] Pawlenty and [Indiana Gov. Mitch] Daniels. I think that’s it.”

Indiana's Republican governor, who has national experience and a roster of conservative home-state achievements, defies urging from his party to jump into the 2012 race. But the clock is ticking. As he slouches towards a possible White House run, Mitch Daniels is the GOP's unlikeliest savior. He governs a Midwestern state that few consider cutting-edge. His bland persona can leave audiences cold. Balding and short, he makes a fetish of self-deprecation. When a stranger approaches after a speech here, eager to "shake the hand of a future president," Daniels gamely obliges.Then he mutters under his breath: "Not much chance of...

Mike Huckabee's expected departure from the Republican race for president opens the door for Sarah Palin again. Palin has gone quiet after the media sizzle around her died and transferred to Donald Trump. But with Trump fading faster than a losing 'Apprentice' competitor and Huckabee now looking like he will drop out, Palin is suddenly back in this race if she wants. Huckabee, with his strong evangelical roots, was a natural to win Iowa and Palin enjoys a comparable level of support among those voters. Contrast that with Mitt Romney who is held in deep suspicion in the first caucus...

Hot Air Candidate Approval Survey: May Edition NO E-MAIL REQUIRED

The Indiana Republican Party just released this video and it does little to suggest Gov. Mitch Daniels won’t seek higher office in 2012. Is this Mitch Daniels’ first campaign ad?

INDIANAPOLIS | Overturning a common law dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes. In a 3-2 decision, Justice Steven David writing for the court said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the officer's entry. "We believe ... a right to resist an unlawful police entry into a home is against public policy and is incompatible with modern Fourth Amendment jurisprudence," David...

Getting to Yes for Mitch and Cheri Daniels INDIANAPOLIS -- When the Indiana Republican Party found itself in a bind this spring, unable to lock down a high-profile keynote speaker for its big annual fundraising dinner, it was Gov. Mitch Daniels himself who came up with the solution: He'd get his wife, Cheri, to do it. It was a bold move, considering that she had never given a high-profile speech before and generally has been reluctant to step onto the political stage. At the same time, her husband has been pondering a 2012 presidential bid (pondering it for the better...

INDIANAPOLIS -- When the Indiana Republican Party found itself in a bind this spring, unable to lock down a high-profile keynote speaker for its big annual fundraising dinner, it was Gov. Mitch Daniels himself who came up with the solution: He'd get his wife, Cheri, to do it. It was a bold move, considering that she had never given a high-profile speech before and generally has been reluctant to step onto the political stage. At the same time, her husband has been pondering a 2012 presidential bid (pondering it for the better part of 18 months, in fact) and the...

Daniels Closer to 2012 Bid, But Has He Overcome Abortion Truce? Indianapolis, IN -- Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels appears closer than ever to indicating he will seek the Republican nomination for president, but, for pro-life voters, one key question remains about his talk of an abortion truce. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/13/daniels-closer-to-2012-bid-but-has-he-overcome-abortion-truce/

INDIANAPOLIS -- With 1,100 people chanting "Run Mitch, Run," Gov. Mitch Daniels took the stage here Thursday night and did something he's never done before: He introduced his wife Cheri, and then he turned the microphone over to her to address the sold-out crowd. It was Cheri Daniels' first-ever speech at a big political event in all the years she has been Indiana's First Lady. And with speculation over whether her husband will enter the presidential race now at fever-pitch, her mere presence at the podium for the annual state GOP dinner had everyone searching for clues and hidden meanings....

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The wife of Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is giving few hints about whether her husband will run for president during a rare speech to Republican supporters in Indianapolis. Cheri Daniels has kept a low profile as Indiana's first lady, but she made her biggest speech Thursday to a sold-out crowd of more than 1,000 people at a state party dinner. She joked about her "glamorous" role in the state. She showed the crowd photos of her with sports team mascots, dressing up with the governor for Halloween and milking a cow at the state fair. Mitch Daniels...

Many in the Republican Party are desperately hoping that Indiana governor Mitch Daniels will swoop in and save them from a field of fatally flawed or un-serious presidential candidates. And according to the Huffington Post, Daniels would like to. There's just one thing standing in his way at this point: How he and his wife are going to handle their weird marriage history. "In 1993, Cheri Daniels left her husband with their four daughters and married another man in California. She returned a few years later, reconciled with Daniels, and the two were remarried in 1997." Cheri has never spoken...

It is a common complaint that politicians say one thing during the campaign but do something entirely different when governing. Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana is the Benjamin Button of potential Presidential candidates, he turns the whole thing on its head by not talking the talk but walking the walk. I have been extremely critical of Governor Daniels these past months as he has openly advocated for what has been termed “a truce” on the divisive social issues so we can focus on the pressing problem of debt. He put it this way on the Laura Ingraham radio show. “If...

Indianapolis— Five students arrested at an immigration protest at the Indiana Statehouse Monday will not face deportation. Federal authorities lifted detention orders against the illegal immigrants Tuesday evening. The detention was lifted shortly after the five declared a hunger strike Tuesday. The students say the hunger strike will last until Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R) vetoes the immigration bill he has previously promised to sign. The students were part of a protest that went all the way to the front door of the governor's office. Senate Bill 590 would make illegal immigrants pay much higher tuitions. The cost would be...

"As governor of Indiana, Daniels signed a state law that will end state-directed funding for businesses that perform abortions. Needless to say, Planned Parenthood--the long-time nemesis of the pro-life movement in America--falls into that category. Daniels' decision has political implications should he decide to run for president...."

Indiana Gov. Daniels Signs Bill De-Funding Planned Parenthood Indianapolis, IN -- Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana has signed a bill to revoke taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business. The bill makes the Hoosier state the first to go as far as it has in shutting down funding. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/10/indiana-gov-daniels-signs-bill-de-funding-planned-parenthood/