Welcome to the horserace before the horserace. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, one of the more prominent names in the ever-expanding Republican presidential field for 2012, is doing what all the other prominent names in the field are doing: being coy about his intentions.
Sources close to Daniels tell Real Clear Politics’ Erin McPike that the term-limited governor is “about 75 percent of the way in for a presidential run.”
“The last 25 percent of his decision will come during the next four months of the Indiana legislative session, when he will try to pass education reform and a budget,” McPike reports.
When/if Daniels enters the race, he’ll probably tack toward the moderate end of the GOP base. Daniels drew fire from social conservatives when he called for a truce on social issues, which he said should come below national security and the economy on the political priority list.
What Daniels has going for him, at least in the minds of his supporters, is a strict fiscal disciplinarian streak. He was doing his own version of the Chris Christie (R) thing in Indiana well before Christie became governor of New Jersey.
But with tea party Republicans seemingly as eager to criticize GOP fiscal policy during the reign of George W. Bush as they are to attack President Obama’s socialist spending bonanza these days, Daniels may have a tougher time convincing the fiscal hawks he’s one of them than his record in Indiana might suggest. Daniels was Bush’s budget director and as such is already facing down some questions about the ballooning federal deficit and doubled-up federal debt that happened on his watch.
How his years in the Bush White House would play before a national Republican primary electorate could be a big part of that 25% worth of decision-making McPike’s sources say Daniels still has to make before he throws his hat in the ring.
