With Mike Huckabee bowing out, Newt Gingrich blowing up and Donald Trump dropping the pretense, the already-hot buzz for Mitch Daniels jumped up several notches. It's hard to turn on a political talk show and not hear his name. It's almost being taken for granted now that he will seek the presidential nomination:
And yet, Daniels has become the hottest thing in Republican political circles of late by doing one simple thing: waiting.
Daniels has, for months now, been publicly mulling a presidential candidacy. And, as he has remained on the fence, almost everyone else in the race has jumped off of it — leaving a field that many GOP voters and strategists believe is wanting.
That sentiment has turned Daniels into the man of the moment as, in recent weeks, he has been publicly praised far and wide by prominent Republicans.
And a lot of the pundits not only think he'll run but seem to believe he has a shot at winning and, furthermore, would be a formidable opponent of President Obama. I dunno. Favorite son and all that -- makes it hard to be objective.
A lot of the speculation lately has been about the decision to bring first lady Cheri Daniels out for a major speech -- she has not normally sought the spotlight. Their personal story -- she divorced him, married someone else, divorced that man and then remarried Mitch -- is seen as potentially troublesome, and this may have been an effort to test the waters and see how the press and public would treat it.
If he does run, I don't think that will be his toughest personal issue. In today's lack-of-commitment culture, it's even kind of a touching story. I suspect those who bring it and try to make something out of it will be the ones whose reputations suffer, not the Daniels'.
It will be much tougher for answer for his college-days marijuana bust, unless the changes the way he's been talking about it. He was busted with enough marijuana to trigger a prison sentence but got off with a $350 fine, and he says "justice was served" by that. And yet today, he advocates prison time even for casual marijuana users. That apparent double standard and what it says about Daniels will be troubling to a lot of voters.
