Romney/Daniels

[Reaganfan]

How would that ticket do? I was just thinking that the GOP running mate field seems pretty weak...but Daniels could make a good running mate. He can help strengthen GOP numbers in the region (Indiana/Ohio/Michigan) where McCain/Palin was lacking that someone like Romney could win in.

Romney/Daniels...hmm...not bad.

[JSojourner]

Given my relative respect for Romney, I sure hope not.

[Lunar]

Doesn't Daniels have too much baggage?

What does he bring to the table that TPaw doesn't?

[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.   

[RIP Robert H Bork]

Daniels was once a Bush cabinet member, right?

[RosettaStoned]

Daniels was once a Bush cabinet member, right?

Yes, he was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

[JSojourner]

Daniels was once a Bush cabinet member, right?

Yes, he was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Which should, solely on that basis, cost him an election.  Thanks to Jill Long-Thompson's awful campaigning, Daniels actually managed to win re-election.  And he's been an incompetent governor every step of the way.

[RIP Robert H Bork]

Daniels was once a Bush cabinet member, right?

Yes, he was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Well, that is no good thing for Daniels (well not really; Indiana did after all elect him to a first term in the same year that they went for Bush by ~20 points, and to a second term by double digits despite flipping in the presidential election and barely going to Obama). Still, Bush II's unpopularity will be remembered for some time, and Obama, who would still campaign as change from Bush, would definitely use that link against him.

[Lincoln Republican]

In my view, Romney would need a running mate who has DC experience, most preferably an experienced, respected Senator with foreign policy credentials.

[milhouse24]

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)

[Roemerista]

I do not believe even Daniels could save a Romney campaign. It would lock up the midwest sure, but I do not think Daniels would sure up the Southern votes as much as Romney needs.

As for me, despite Mitch being great, I would probably still refuse to vote for such a ticket.

[feeblepizza]

That is one of few scenarious in which I would vote for Romney as President.

[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.
 

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

That is one of few scenarious in which I would vote for Romney as President.

There are NO scenarios in which I'd support Mittens. He cannot be on the ticket whatsoever. If he is, Wayne Allen Root gets my vote. That even would include a Paul/Romney ticket. In which case I write in The Honorable Judge Andrew Napalitano as VP.


Paul/Daniels, Paul/Paul, or Paul/Napalitano 2012