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February 10, 2012
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Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
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Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
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Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
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Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
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Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
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Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
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Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
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Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
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Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
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Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
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Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
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January 17, 2012
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David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
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Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
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January 11, 2012
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Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
June 12, 2009
/ 20 Sivan 5769
What would Daniels do?
By
Rich Lowry
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
In a new Gallup Poll asking who is the national leader of the Republican Party, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels didn't even rate an asterisk. That's unsurprising. The governor of the country's 16th most populous state won't normally garner much national attention, especially when he's an unassuming, old-school budget cutter.
It's also a shame, because more than any other Republican officeholder, Daniels points the way ahead for his bedraggled party. He's a Reaganite who's not trapped in 1980s nostalgia; he's a fiscal conservative who believes not just in limiting government, but in reforming it to address people's everyday concerns; he's a politician of principle who refuses to sell his program in off-puttingly partisan or ideological terms.
As they grapple with President Barack Obama, Republicans at the national level could do worse than ask themselves: What would Daniels do?
At a recent forum in Washington sponsored by the Bradley Foundation and Hudson Institute, Daniels noted that Ralph Waldo Emerson said every polity tends to have a party of memory and a party of hope. "Hope" has of late become a kind of swearword for conservatives, so Daniels could have been expected to be winding up for a jab at Obama. Instead, he said, "We must be, as we have been in our better days, our more successful days, a party of hope."
Daniels went on to give a plug for empathy as an animating attitude for the GOP: "We must not only assert, but assert with credibility, that we understand what is going on in the lives of everyday people." His pitch included a plug for Republicans directing themselves "almost entirely to the young people of this country." In Indiana, Daniels explained, the GOP is "the party of purpose," arrayed against Democrats who are "reactionary" and "negative" "everything we must not be, as we address national events."
If this sounds like a call for a mushy me-tooism, it isn't. When Daniels took office, the state had an $800 million deficit. He turned it into a $1.3 billion surplus (although it will be eaten into in the current downturn). Since 2005, he's saved roughly $450 million in the state's budget and reduced the state's rate of spending growth from 5.9 percent to 2.8 percent. "I tell you with certainty," Daniels told his Washington audience, "concern about the debt and deficit has not gone out of style."
"Mitch the Knife," as he was nick-named when he headed George W. Bush's Office of Management and Budget, has matched his fiscal probity with the restless innovation of a devoted policy entrepreneur. He leased the state's faltering toll road to a European operator for nearly $4 billion. He created health savings accounts for Indiana's poor. He deregulated telecommunications. And he attracted business to the state, with Indiana winning more foreign investment than any other state during the past two years.
A populist outcry against the toll-road deal dragged Daniels' approval rating down to 37 percent at one point, and his tenure seemed a warning against putting a tightfisted technocrat in elected office. But opinion turned. He won re-election by 18 points last year. He won 20 percent of the black vote, and beat his Democratic opponent among voters under age 30 by 7 points.
Daniels counsels national Republicans to adopt a "no, but" approach. As he told an interviewer from National Journal, on cap-and-trade he'd say: "No, let's not double the tax on poor people in the vain hope of moving the world's thermometer. Here's a way to conserve energy and protect the environment that doesn't impoverish the nation." On health care, he'd say, "Sure, let's get people covered with health insurance, but here's a much better way."
His success has stoked speculation about a possible 2012 presidential run. Daniels has made Shermanesque disavowals of national ambitions, and expressed confidence that new national leaders will soon emerge. When they do, they should heed the lesson and message of Mitch Daniels, an exemplar of a winning conservatism.
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© 2009 King Features Syndicate
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