My man Mitch. Do, please, RTWT. It is all good. Some snippets:
We believe that government works for the benefit of private life, and not the other way around. We see government’s mission as fostering and enabling the important realms – our businesses, service clubs, Little Leagues, churches – to flourish. Our first thought is always for those on life’s first rung, and how we might increase their chances of climbing. …
We have broadened the right of parents to select the best place for their children’s education to include every public school, traditional or charter, regardless of geography, tuition-free. And before our current legislature adjourns, we intend to become the first state of full and true choice by saying to every low and middle-income Hoosier family, if you think a non-government school is the right one for your child, you’re as entitled to that option as any wealthy family; here’s a voucher, go sign up. …
An affectionate thank you to the major social welfare programs of the last century, but their sunsetting when those currently or soon to be enrolled have passed off the scene. The creation of new Social Security and Medicare compacts with the young people who will pay for their elders and who deserve to have a backstop available to them in their own retirement. …
Medicare 2.0 should restore to the next generation the dignity of making their own decisions, by delivering its dollars directly to the individual, based on financial and medical need, entrusting and empowering citizens to choose their own insurance and, inevitably, pay for more of their routine care like the discerning, autonomous consumers we know them to be. …
The second worst outcome I can imagine for next year would be to lose to the current president and subject the nation to what might be a fatal last dose of statism. The worst would be to win the election and then prove ourselves incapable of turning the ship of state before it went on the rocks, with us at the helm. …
Mitch is my front-runner.
Is it too early to put up a yard sign?
UPDATE: Audio.
Now, “that’s” what I am talkin’ about!
Articulate, without the silky smooth, used-car, salesman’s delivery.
Speaks straight to the heart of the matter.
Is not afraid to speak the truth.
…time to break out the check book?
I noted somewhere, on the Web, over a year ago, how Indiana was doing OK, even with the RV industry screeching to a stop, while surrounding Ohio and Michigan .. and Illinois were failing horrendously.
I asked “What are they doing in Indiana that the others cannot copy and become successful?” No one had an answer, and I remained ignorant, only peripherally informed as a Boilermaker grad and former resident.
Now I know.
tom
Note to self: never, never listen to the conventional wisdom pundits!
He is able to charm in that speech, as one commenter states over at HotAir. That is one of the best speeches I’ve have watched or listened to in a long, long, long time. Wow.
I will have to pay attention to Mitch Daniels now it seems. Star-maker speech. We’ll see if he has the campaigning chops to back it up if he so chooses.
– Madhu
Lex, He’s my favorite, too. He is the only one in the crowd that hasn’t morphed into some sort of pop-culture reflection of what their handlers think a politician should look and sound like.
I wish he’d grow a few inches. There is a tradition of then tallest candidate winning the presidency.
I agree. I became a Mitch Daniels supporter today after watching his speech on CSPAN. Romney would get thrashed by Obama in 2012.
I also saw the Daniels speech on CSPAN, superstar. I also saw Pawlenty – forgive my french, but Pawlenty’s speech sucked out loud. Content and delivery. I flipped the channel before it was over.
Pawlenty is a squish. Not what we need now.
There are simply too many favorite parts to single out (love the dig at Herb Kohl!) but his New Red Menace mantra can be very, very effective for others to employ (Scott Walker, Chris Christie, etc).
This is the crux of it though:
“The nation must be summoned to General Quarters in the cause of economic growth. The friends of freedom always favor a growing economy as the wellspring of individual opportunity and a bulwark against a domineering state. But here, doctrinal debates are unnecessary; the arithmetic tells it all. We don’t have a prayer of defeating the Red Threat of our generation without a long boom of almost unprecedented duration. Every other goal, however worthy, must be tested against and often subordinated to actions that spur the faster expansion of the private sector on which all else depends.”