Snooze Along With Mitch

Jennifer Rubin has a great post on Mitch Daniels today. While he may be the darling of the beltway crowd, I have watched his career up close for eight years and frankly he has one great draw back. This man is dull. Deadly dull! He has been an above average governor but the same could be said of Evan Bayh. On the state level there is one small impediment in a Daniels campaign that may or may not cause trouble. Senator Dick Lugar is facing a primary challenge from Secretary of State Richard Mourdock. (Full disclosure- I have volunteered to work for Mourdock) Before the primary Daniels must decide whether he will back Lugar or Mourdock and that could be tricky.

For those of us who remember our discomfort with the somnambulant pre-Palin McCain campaign; a Daniels campaign would be deja vu. Yes, I know he sounds exciting when Bill Kristol expounds his positives but there is a world of difference between running for office in Indiana and running in a national campaign. Dan Quayle was much admired in Indiana as a Senator but when he was subjected to the scrutiny of the national press corp he became a liability to Bush's ticket.

The Republican party should avoid getting caught up in the balanced budget argument to the extent that it does not articulate the essential prerequisite of balanced budget which is economic growth. Robust economic growth solves a lot budget problems and forgives a lot fiscal missteps. Sarah Palin vaguely hints at it when she talks about getting the government out of the way and unleashing free enterprise but she doesn't go far enough. Mitch Daniels, I'm afraid, would view and present to the voters the idea that balancing the budget is some sort of an arcane accounting exercise and that would be dull!