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This morning, the Republican leadership on the Hill announced that Indiana governor Mitch Daniels would deliver the GOP response Tuesday night to President Obama’s State of the Union Address. An hour ago, a dark lady mysteriously appeared at our offices and dropped off an envelope before vanishing down the stairwell. We can’t vouch for the authenticity of the document the envelope contained, of course. But it appears to be a draft of a section—the final section, apparently—of Daniels’s speech text. On the first page of the section is typed, in capital letters, “DO NOT CIRCULATE WITH THE REST OF THE...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a popular fiscal conservative who flirted with a presidential bid, will deliver the Republican response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced the selection of Daniels in a statement Thursday in which they praised his "solid record of effective government and fiscal responsibility." Daniels provides the GOP with a one-time potential White House hopeful as a counterpoint to Obama in an election year heavily focused on the nation's economic outlook. He also governs a state that Obama...

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels says he will push for a statewide smoking ban and mild local government reforms in the 2012 legislative session. Those are among the priorities Daniels, a Republican who will begin his last year in office in January, plans to outline in a noon speech Friday at the downtown Skyline Club for the Kiwanis Club of Indianapolis. In an interview Thursday, he also hinted that he would support a proposal seeking legislative approval to let voters decide whether to increase local income taxes to expand mass transit in Marion County and surrounding counties. “My attitude is the...

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...

Last May, when Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels was pondering a White House bid, Jason Sorens of the University of Buffalo wrote a commentary that went largely unnoticed. Wanting to "take a look at Jon Huntsman," who has been "widely viewed as a 'moderate' Republican, but whose" policies "stake out a position that may be more libertarian than Daniels'," Sorens concluded that after former Gov. Gary Johnson and Texas Congressman Ron Paul, Huntsman offered the most libertarian credentials — besting even Daniels. Sorens's views deserve recognition in New Hampshire, a generally conservative state with decisively libertarian leanings, as our first-in-the-nation presidential...

Mike Pence, Mitch Daniels, Paul Ryan, Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush — conservatives all year long have been wishing, yearning, even begging people who aren’t in the presidential race to enter the fray and save them from what seems like a frighteningly uninspiring field of candidates. Yet could it be that the sharpest, most accomplished, most campaign-savvy, and most full-spectrum conservative in a quarter-century of presidential contests has been in the contest all along, working harder than anybody, making at least as much intellectual sense as anybody, never blowing a debate, and never failing to stand on...

Republican candidates for president have been busy for weeks now, laboring strenuously to give the 2012 nomination to Mitt Romney. And he keeps trying to give it back. The former Massachusetts governor could walk to next year's GOP convention without touching the ground, treading exclusively on the bodies of rivals who have fallen on their faces. He's the equivalent of the Alabama Crimson Tide, playing a schedule heavy on Southeastern Louisiana and Middle Tennessee State. He should be running up the score every week. Instead, he keeps finding ways to keep his opponents in the game. Look at the opposition....

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,...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is reconsidering his decision not to enter the 2012 presidential race — and he says he will let top Republican donors know within days about his plans, Newsmax has learned. During the past few weeks, several leading Republican donors and fundraisers have been urging the popular Republican governor to reconsider his decision not to run and to enter the GOP primary. These Christie supporters note that significant GOP support has remained on the sidelines of the primary fight. Many leading fundraisers have yet to commit to any current primary contender, including frontrunners Rick Perry and...

The candidates in last night's Republican presidential debate failed to deliver again. The two hour event included the same old stump speech sound bytes, lots of defensive posturing and attempted jabs at each other most of which missed their marks. The allegedly conservative front runner claimed anyone against giving illegal immigrants tuition breaks is heartless, the moderate that's currently running second is still trying to defend his state health care mandate and the most memorable moment of the night came from a candidate few have even heard of. Meanwhile hours before the debate, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie appeared with...

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) disagreed with several of the GOP White House contenders after Thursday night’s GOP debate, saying President Obama is not a socialist. During the debate, most of the candidates described the president that way. When asked Friday if he thought Obama had pursued socialist policies, Daniels laughed wryly and simply said, “No.” He also used the opportunity to warn the contenders to be more careful with their rhetoric. “At some stage I just think that if you’re interested in results you should just try to be careful to use words that don’t drive anybody away and...

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...

<p>Former New York Gov. George Pataki is taking a harder look at running for president, saying Democratic President Obama is faltering and the Republican field is thinning.</p> <p>Spokesman David Catalfamo said Monday that several factors are in play as the 66-year-old Pataki again considers a White House run.</p>

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...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Mitch Daniels is dipping into the state's $1.2 billion surplus to give bonuses to most state workers. Daniels said Friday that most state workers will get bonuses of $500, $750 or $1,000 based on their performance over the last year. The bonuses will total between $15 million and $20 million. State Auditor Tim Berry reported Thursday that the state ended the year with $1.2 billion in cash reserves. Berry called state workers "heroic" for their efforts to save money. Daniels said Friday that the rest of the state's surplus is likely to be socked away rather than...

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...

A poll unveiled this week from American Research Group shows that three Republican presidential candidates -- U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska -- are gaining serious momentum in Iowa, site of the first presidential caucus. Bachmann, who declared her candidacy in June and has been surging in polls at both the national and state levels, topped the poll with 21 percent. Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts placed second with 18 percent. Paul, who was the Libertarian candidate in 1988 and ran for the Republican nomination in...

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.

With Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels out of the race, is a Huntsman boomlet brewing? There is no shortage of voices willing to say so, including Jon Huntsman. "I think the opening is to our advantage," the former Utah governor told Politico. "How many reform-minded governors are there left who are going to take a very fiscally conservative approach to problem-solving?" Daniels had a strong appeal to fiscal conservatives, but his "truce talk" added a special appeal to that subset of fiscal conservatives actively motivated to stick it to social conservatives. Many mavericky McCain campaign aides are now drifting off in...