Daniels Keeps the Door Open for 2012

Indiana Gov. Daniels will decide on 2012 bid in April
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) said that he'll likely decide on whether or not he'll run for president sometime by the end of April. The dark-horse contender for the GOP nomination in 2012 said he'd decide on whether or not to run for the White House after his state's legislature wraps up its session next spring. "I think the decision has to come at the end of this General Assembly session, if not before. No later than that," Daniels told Indiana news station WANE. "In fairness to people fr...

It's a Wrap - Congress Passes Tax Cuts
The more I think about this thing the more I wonder if this was the right move or not. I'm conflicted. On the one hand it keeps the cash flowing to the people during a Recession, whether they are rich people or poor people. On the other hand, it will continue to put us further into Debt. But what I'm really trying to figure out is why the group that has jumped up and down and thrown a fit about anything that that so much as adds one penny onto the Deficit is now the very same group that is addin...

Barbour, Daniels wait for spring
The timeline is getting a bit clearer, Alex Burns notices: Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, two of the biggest question marks of the 2012 cycle, said yesterday that they’ll make up their minds about the Presidential Campaign by sometime this spring. And Daniels gave a newly specific, end-of-April deadline for making his decision, telling WANE-TV that it &ld...;

Daniels will decide on presidential bid before May
Washington (CNN) - Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is setting a deadline for when he must decide whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. Daniels, a favorite among Republican insiders who respect his fiscally conservative record, said Wednesday that he must figure out his plans by the end of April, when Indiana's legislative session is slated to wrap up. "I think the decision has to come at the end of this General Assembly session, if not before. No later than that," Daniels to...

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels joins Don Wade and Roma
On December 16th, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels joined Don Wade and Roma to discuss the omnibus bill. How does he feel about the omnibus bill? What does he think about Earmarks? Would he have handled the meeting with CEOs differently than Obama? Is it a good idea to borrow money for pensions? Your central source for everything from WLS' flagship programs - The Don Wade & Roma Morning Show, The Cisco Cotto Show and The Roe Conn Show with Richard Roeper - as well as breaking newsmaker interviews...

Increase in income taxes and expand unemployment benefits? good plan
President Barack Obama is now required to sign Legislation into law that would avoid the January 1st deadline for an increase in income taxes and would renew the Unemployment Benefits for americans. The measure would also cut Social Security taxes for most workers in the United States and would put in necessary money into the hurting economy, approximately billions of dollars worth. For the worst Recession in an eighty year period, this should be good news for tax payers and citizens of the Unit...

No. No No No No No No No. NO!!!
Republican Indiana Governor and privatization enthusiast Mitch Daniels says he will decide this spring whether he'll run for president. "I think the decision has to come at the end of this General Assembly session, if not before. No later than that," said Daniels. "In fairness to people from all over the place - many of whom I've only read about before - who like this idea [of Daniels running for president], I owe them some kind of an answer."Indeed. And that answer should be NO! I've expressed ...

Whats Mike Pence going to do?
Mike Pence has already announced that he’ll step down from his leadership post as the Chairman of the House Republican Conference.  So what does that mean? Maybe not much.  Maybe it means that he wants to free up some time for family or other interests. Now there is speculation that he might have his sights set on other aspirations besides the United States Congress. Indiana will soon be voting for a new Governor, as term limited Governor Mitch Daniel’s term will end in 201...

FB Watch
Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake discusses Earmarks and his hopes for the creation of a subcommittee on investigations. Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of Washington, D.C. schools, discusses the rationale behind judging teachers on performance and the new non-profit organization Students First. Neil Friedman, president of Mattel Brands, discusses 'Singamajigs' and other popular toys for this year. Indiana Gov. on Shrinking Government Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels discusses politics in his home stat...

Indiana buys 15 THINK City cars
Published: Dec. 16, 2010 at 5:04 PM ELKHART, Ind., Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Indiana purchased 15 electrically-powered, zero-emission THINK City passenger vehicles Thursday that will be tested in State Parks. The vehicles designed in Scandinavia, were assembled at a THINK Manufacturing plant in Elkhart, Ind., and are designed to fit into fleet vehicle sales, THINK Chief Executive Officer Barry Engle said. "Our delivery today is part of a larger effort to help transform the U.S. light-duty vehicle fleet f...

Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels Put Off Presidential Announcement Until Spring
ABC News’ Michael Falcone reports: Here are two more clues that the 2012 Presidential Campaign is going to get off to a late start: two potential GOP Candidates acknowledged this week that if they decide to run, they won’t jump in until the spring. “I think the decision has to come at the end of this General Assembly session, if not before. No later than that,” Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels told WANE-TV in Ft. Wayne on Wednesday. (The state’s General Assembly sessio

Obama and Morality, The Boy and The Bike, An Analogy
So there is this didactic tale about a little boy who arrives at school breathlessly having pushed alongside himself the entire way his bicycle. The principal standing outside the school building looking at the latecomers asks the child why he ran alongside the bike instead of riding it. The boy explains, "You see sir, I didn't want to be late. I just couldn't afford the time it would take to climb on." I'm gonna stretch this lesson, and call the bike Morality and the young lad Obama. Obama coul...

Harry Reid Blinks
Business as usual in Washington ended tonight. Harry Reid pulled the pork laden spending bill that, if passed, would have locked the Republicans into a massive Budget Deficit for the next year. Nevada Democrat Harry Reid gave up on the nearly $1.3 Trillion bill after several Republicans who had been thinking of voting for the bill pulled back their support. GOP leader Mitch McConnell threw his weight against the bill in recent days, saying it was in his words “unbelievable” that Dem...

Senator to seek vote stopping EPA carbon rules
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator John Rockefeller of West Virginia on Thursday said he would seek a vote before the end of the current congressional session on his bill to postpone Environmental Protection Agency Regulation of smokestack Carbon Dioxide emissions for two years. With EPA regulations due to kick in soon that would require big factories to start cutting Pollution blamed for Global Warming, Rockefeller said: "I want to make it clear that I intend to get a vote this year on my EPA-suspe...

SPOTLIGHT: Teen wants Illinois stalking awareness
ELGIN, Ill. — To those who know her, it's no surprise that Hannah Perryman would keep working for stalking Victims, though her own ordeal is over. But the rapid pace of happenings since she came forward to tell her story several weeks ago is daunting even to the teen who specializes in slinging fastballs for Elgin High's softball team. After being contacted by 17-year-old Hannah, who, after years of being stalked by a neighborhood teen pushed for a change in state law, Gov. Pat Quinn ...

And the Winner of the FI$CY Is
By Patrick O'Connor A coalition of Budget watchdogs announced the winners of the first annual FI$CY awards on Thursday. And the winners are… Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels , a potential Candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012; Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D., N.D.); and Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), the incoming chairman of the House Budget Committee. What is the FI$CY Award, you ask. It’s the latest in a long line of made-for-the-media gimmicks to draw attention ..

GOP Pulse: Slow Walking to 2012
Thune dips his feet in New Hampshire: The Rapid City Journal notes that Sen. John Thune (R-SD) is giving a Radio Interview with New Hampshire Radio Station WKXL. "While Iowa is nearby South Dakota and shares many of the same issues, New Hampshire is another ballgame entirely, and it's hard to see why else Thune would be doing in an interview with a New Hampshire Radio Station other than to get himself in front of an important primary state." Gingrich talks up Haley before visit: In an interview...

The VERY Wide Open 2012 GOP Presidential Race
Despite the persistent myth that the Republican rank-and-file are all patiently waiting to be told by Great Big Grownups which leader to follow in 2012 (you know, a Great Big Grownup Candidate like Mitch Daniels or Haley Barbour or John Thune) there's remarkably little evidence that conservative Activists, the true rulers of the GOP, are converging behind any particular candidate. For a good indication of the landscape, check out the reader poll recently conducted at the highy influential rig...

ObamaCare Cost-Estimate Watch, Day #265
Today, the Congressional Budget Office released what may be the penultimate cost estimate of ObamaCare. Or maybe it will be the 12th-to-the-last.  Whatever. That document — unlike the CBO’s score of the Clinton health plan — includes no cost estimates of the Legislation’s private-sector mandates.  As I have written previously, the private-sector mandates accounted for 60 percent of the cost of the Clinton plan.  The Obama plan is remarkably similar, which i...

NYT editorial: Round Up the Usual Prospects
To no one’s shock, the lame-duck session is offering daily profiles in hypocrisy by lawmakers who made loud campaign vows to “change the culture” of Washington. In the Senate, prominent Republicans who took the anti-earmark pledge as part of the Tea Party crusade against Deficits now must deal with a mammoth $1.2 Trillion Government Spending bill that happens to be routinely packed with their own customized pork. What to do? “The simple answer is: I’m going to vote against th

John Affeldt: Senate Poised to Call Novice Teachers "Highly Qualified" and Allow Concentration in Poor, Minority Schools
Buried deep in the nearly 2,000 page Senate omnibus appropriations bill nearing passage as soon as this weekend is an amendment slipped in on Tuesday that would lower the standard of teacher owed every child in the nation under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The provision, which has Grassroots and community groups across the country up in arms, would permit teachers still training in night or weekend alternative preparation programs (known as interns in some states) to be labeled as "highly qua...

Paul Krugman: Wall Street Whitewash
When the facts are inconsistent with the conservative narrative, Conservatives "adjust the facts": Wall Street Whitewash, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times: When the Financial Crisis struck, many people — myself included — considered it a teachable moment. Above all, we expected the crisis to remind everyone why banks need to be effectively regulated. How naïve we were. We should have realized that the modern Republican Party is utterly dedicated to the Reaganite slogan that

House Passes Controversial Tax Legislation
What is this? The Controversial package extends long term Unemployment Benefits to jobless Americans and cuts Social Security taxes for a year. It renews some Bush-era Tax Cuts that were about to expire. AP notes the new expiration date for these Tax Cuts is 2012: right at the end of an election year. It passed the House 278-177, but NPR's Andrea Seabrook tells Morning Edition many Democrats hated it because it didn't require wealthier Americans to pay more in taxes, while Republicans mourned th...

And Now You Can Pat Yourself On The Back
The Omnibus bill was pulled last night by Harry Reid after several Republicans who were considering voting for it reversed course. The Omnibus bill was defeated because of you and millions of others like you who let their voices be heard on the Internet, radio airwaves, through emails and phone calls, and most of all, at the voting booth in November. Your efforts not only influenced Republicans in the Senate, but also Democrats who are up for Reelection in 2012. I had Reid wrong. I thought that...

Merchantville and Cherry Hill merger proposal hits a hurdle
Merchantville Borough and Cherry Hill Township still may come together as one municipality, but the courtship will likely take longer than residents expected. An application from a Grassroots group of borough residents trying to take the first step toward merging the tiny municipality with its larger neighbor was rejected this week by the State Department of Community Affairs (DCA). New Jersey's Local Option Consolidation Act does not allow for a "hybrid application" resulting from the...