Romney/Daniels

[pbrower2a]

It's hard to see what state one associates Mitt Romney with. Is it Michigan or Massachusetts, both of which voted by large double-digit margins for Obama?

Daniels is associated excessively with corporatism of the Bush II era -- a corporatism that Americans distrust. The public sector is not appropriately sold off to concessionaires who act as profiteering monopolists. The Toll Road deal is a beggar-my-neighbor deal, and it likely loses him votes in Michigan and Ohio. As much trouble as the GOP had in Ohio in 2006, it's hard to see how Daniels helps there.

(If anyone looks at the Indiana Toll Road and sees US 20 as a viable alternative, then consider that US 20 has a lot of horse-and-buggy traffic -- Old Order Amish -- between Elkhart and Lagrange, and at least two 90-degree curves). Indiana 120 is much the same.   

[pbrower2a]

I think Romney/Daniels would be a strong ticket, even though both are seen as moderates and don't satisfy the Tea Party base, they are seen as Fiscal conservatives and can win the electoral college.  Romney would need a VP with military experience (like Petraeus or McCain, lol) or someone with white house/senate experience (like Daniels or some Senator)

So far, Romney and Huckabee are both safe from being considered "Washington insiders". In the toxic climate that we associate with the budgetary showdown, they don't have to say anything germane to the squabble for now. So show their polls. I can't say much about Daniels, as I have seen no polls involving him. Should the contest between the President and the House GOP prove ugly, then a current or former Governor has the potential for saying

 "I will work with either sort of majority far more effectively than President Obama does with Republicans".

Even if the fault is with Republicans for putting ideology over genuine solutions to the budgetary mess, then such is true. A Senator? He or she would still have the tag of "Washington Insider".  No Republican Senator can say that unless someone who would offend the Tea Party base, and few Republicans can win without that Hard Right base.   

You can forget the following Governors, as they have shown themselves excessively connected to the Hard Right, or otherwise abrasive or corrupt:

Paul LePage
Scott Walker
Rick Scott
John Kasich
Rick Snyder
Tom Corbett
Rick Perry
Jan Brewer


Except for Rick Perry and Jan Brewer, none of these could win re-election in their 'own' states. When one sees mass demonstrations against the policies of the Governor or his associates in the State legislature, then you have evidence of a "failure to communicate".

...in all honesty I had expected far better of Rick Snyder than I have so far seen.

The budgetary mess is not an excuse for dismantling the EPA, defunding NPR or Planned Parenthood, or some other things that might come up the next time around (outlawing homosexuality, a national right-to-starve law, an abortion ban, or a requirement that creationism supplant evolution in public schools).

By November 2012, the Republican nominee will have to make peace with the Tea Party types, and if those are unpopular in November 2012, then President Obama wins at least as decisively in 2012 as in 2008.