Free Republic

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Gov. Mitch Daniels has been named the next president of Purdue University, a role he'll take on after leaving office in January. Purdue trustees voted unanimously Thursday morning to appoint Daniels to succeed France Cordova, who will leave in July after five years at Purdue's helm.

Police officers in Indiana are upset over a new law allowing residents to use deadly force against public servants, including law enforcement officers, who unlawfully enter their homes. It was signed by Republican Governor Mitch Daniels in March. The first of its kind in the United States, the law was adopted after the state Supreme Court went too far in one of its rulings last year, according to supporters. The case in question involved a man who assaulted an officer during a domestic violence call. The court ruled that there was “no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry by police...

Rick Santorum Backs Richard Mourdock in Indiana Senate Race By Shushannah Walshe | ABC OTUS News Rick Santorum has weighed in on the fierce primary battle in the Indiana senate race. The former presidential candidate tweeted his support of State Treasurer Richard Mourdock over longtime Sen. Dick Lugar. @RickSantorum: I encourage Hoosiers to help GOTV for @RichardMourdock. If I lived in Indiana he'd have my vote in Tuesday's #INSen race. Lugar has held the seat since 1976, but Tea Party favorite Richard Mourdock is waging a serious challenge and is leading in state polls. Mourdock also has the backing of...

Some 20 million Americans in primaries and caucuses will take part in selecting the Republican presidential nominee. One person will choose the vice presidential nominee. This has long struck me as absurd: One person choosing someone who, as a result, might become president for as long as 10 years. But just about everyone in politics says it's the only proper way. Over the last 25 years, presidential nominees of both parties have engaged in conscientious consultation and have mostly made pretty good choices. No more picks at five o'clock in the morning to meet a convention deadline. For even longer,...

Tuesday night, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a bill that would protect citizens who reasonably believe force is necessary to protect themselves, someone else or their own property from unlawful actions by a public servant. While supports believe the proposal strengthens the legal rights of people against public servants or government agents illegally entering their home, police groups are worried that many will use it as justification for attacking officers or will not understand the law fully. "For those who don't take the time to read the law, it is going to be devastating for someone to think they have...

With Mitt Romney increasing his lead over Rick Santorum with a victory in Puerto Rico over the weekend, it is likely, that at the very least, Romney will hold his own or increase his lead over Santorum in Tuesday’s Illinois primary. Mitt Romney now holds a lead of more than 2-1 over Rick Santorum (521-253) -- positioning him as the clear and indeed most likely Republican nominee for president. But while Romney has won 55% of the delegates thus far – and indeed, it seems clear that neither Santorum on his own or Gingrich will be able to individually stop...

INDIANAPOLIS -- State refunds for Indiana taxpayers will likely be bigger than first expected, Gov. Mitch Daniels said Tuesday. The governor signed into law a bill that refines the automatic taxpayer refund that's triggered when the state surplus exceeds 12.5 percent of the state budget, RTV6's Norman Cox reported. "This, of course, makes Indiana a state that says at some point, when budgets are balanced and reserves are full, the state should stop collecting money and leave it with the people who earned it," Daniels said. "We think it's a very important principle." The refunds will come as an add-on...

For all the bluster a statewide smoking ban sparked at the beginning of the 2012 legislative session, the version Indiana lawmakers may end up approving seems little more than a wisp of smoke. The Senate approved a statewide ban Wednesday for the first time in its history, with 13 Democrats joining 16 Republicans for a 29-21 vote. But the proposal passed hardly resembles the one the House has approved six times in recent years.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) kept the speculation about a possible brokered GOP convention alive this week when he was asked whether Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels could still become a last-minute presidential candidate. DeMint spoke highly of Daniels when asked at a meeting of the Aiken Republican Club in Aiken, S.C., on Tuesday night. “He’s the only one who could make it happen,” DeMint said, according to a report published by the Augusta Chronicle, a local paper. “But I don’t think his wife will let it happen.” In a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was chosen as...

Like strong solid bookends on either side of a couple of trashy dog-eared paperbacks, two men that represent the best of what the Republican Party offers made speeches this week. Between them, another accusation-filled debate between the contenders for the GOP presidential nomination. On Tuesday, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels gave the party's response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. Not only did he clearly articulate how runaway government spending and an unaffordable national debt is the root of our ongoing economic crisis, he proposed common sense and unity where the president has advocated for already failed policies...

The official Republican response to the President’s State of the Union Address was fine—as far as it went. But Gov. Mitch Daniels missed a golden opportunity to put before the American people a better vision of family, faith, and freedom.   Interestingly, the only mention of family in Gov. Daniels’ response was his praise for President Obama’s own family. Let me stipulate: The Obama family is a model family, apparently devoted to one another. The president even lives happily under the same roof with his mother-in-law. Now, that’s devotion.   But Gov. Daniels could have noted that the policies of the Obama...

I can't blame anyone for dreaming about a late entrant to the Republican presidential field -- Mitt Romney is tone deaf, Newt Gingrich is insufferable, Rick Santorum seems unable to catch fire, and Ron Paul, well, is Ron Paul. The likelihood of beating Barack Obama with any of these guys is uncertain at best, and the desire for someone more conservative, competent, and capable is hard to deny.A sizeable slice of the conservative commentariat seems to think drafting Mitch Daniels is the answer. The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol declares the Indiana Governor the winner of a debate he didn't...

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...

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...

As Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich continue to throw millions of dollars and hundreds of sarcastic barbs at each other, their constant attempts to prove they are the best at gotcha politics is wearing thin. Of course every primary process includes some of what is politely called "contrasting" (in reality it is highlighting the negative aspects of an opponents record), but getting lost in all the mud slinging and chest thumping is the most important issue in the country today. In the GOP response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address last night, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels clearly...

Via Daniel Halper at the Standard, where Bill Kristol’s umpteen-thousandth plea for Daniels to jump in and rescue the party was published this morning. This isn’t a campaign ad, just an (unusually long and polished) RGA promo keyed to Daniels’s SOTU rebuttal tonight. But let’s face it: If he does well, the “second look at Mitch?” murmurs will be deafening tomorrow and this video will operate effectively as a campaign ad, and the RGA surely knows it. Just as Daniels himself surely knew that his spotlight turn tonight, starring the great what-might-have-been of 2012 positioned opposite Obama on national TV...

"I talked to a top Romney adviser tonight who said, 'Look, if Mitt Romney cannot win in Florida then we're going to have to try to reinvent the smoke-filled room which has been democratized by all these primaries. And we're going to have try to come with someone as an alternative to Newt Gingrich who could be Jeb Bush, Mitch Daniels, someone.' VIDEO AT SOURCE

Debate Winner: Mitch Daniels JAN 23, 2012 BY WILLIAM KRISTOL I’ve got to think Monday night’s debate further swelled the groundswell of support for Mitch Daniels. The liveliest part of the debate was at the beginning, when Mitt went after Newt—and Republicans all over America watched with fascinated horror at the thought that these are the two GOP frontrunners. The only spectacle in American politics more off-putting than Newt Gingrich in self-righteous defense mode is Mitt Romney in self-righteous attack mode. I thought Mitt’s attacks were somewhat more dishonest than Newt’s defenses were disingenuous, but it was good to move...

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...

In case there was any doubt, the results of Saturday's South Carolina primary proved there's a proxy war going on in the Republican Party. While casual observers may see a battle between former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, the real fight is between a party establishment that believes only a moderate can win in November and conservatives who want to block a moderate from winning the nomination. After the first three official contests, three different candidates have scored a victory and the fourth showed well enough to stay in the fight. Far from...