Sunday, May 22, 2011

Mitt Romney Breathes A Sigh Of Relief

Mitch Daniels will not enter the race.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels told supporters in a midnight email early Sunday that he is opting against a 2012 presidential run, a decision that will again roil the GOP field and leave many party establishment figures looking for alternatives.

In the end, he said, he couldn't convince his family to get on board. His wife, Cheri, was known to have concerns about a campaign.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pablo, Daniels was the only other person I could have fully supported. So even though this makes smoother sailing for Romney, it's kind of too bad. I respect his deference to his family.

-Martha

Pablo said...

Martha, I have mixed emotions about it. Like you, I would have been happy to see Daniels the nominee. I am glad that he is not running because it consolidates more of the non crazies for Romney, however, it also makes it more possible for somebody like Michelle Bachmann to win the race. As far as I can tell there are only three candidates that I am satisfied with right now - Romney, Pawlenty, and Huntsman. Pawlenty is pandering too much and Huntsman can't win. But any of those three would be ok.

Anonymous said...

I, too could have supported Daniels. If his wife and family are not in it to win it he made the right decision. This will probably make the crazies think the door has opened for them. Personally, I think America is well aware of just how crazy the crazies are and will shift their support to Romney.

Anonymous said...

WOW!....I really believe all these candidates not running, (huckabee,pence, barbour, daniels, etc) are convinced Obama will win reelection and they all are looking ahead to 2016.

This leaves the race wide open, and while it may look like romney has this in the bag, huck and others could all endorse pawlenty or santorum. Its now a great opportunity for bachmann or even palin to jump in. I believe if whoever of the two (bachmann or palin) that announces they are NOT running, the other WILL definitely run.

Anonymous said...

So now the slurs and innuendo about Daniels from the Rombots can end.

If Palin gets in she can stop Romney.

TexasConservative said...

This bodes well for T-Paw.

BOSMAN said...

DanL,

"So now the slurs and innuendo about Daniels from the Rombots can end.

If Palin gets in she can stop Romney."

For the sake of an interesting primary season, I am now hoping she does.

As to "If Palin gets in she can stop Romney." It will take more to do that than wishful thinking and sinking approval ratings.

Not that it matters, but Giuliani will now get in.

CraigS said...

Bos
I really doubt Guiliani gets in because his primary revenue source, his security company , has the contract for the Rio Olympics and if you ever conceived of a challenge for security, Rio is it. Too many bucks on the table to let that project alone

Craig

Anonymous said...

Guiliana...oh my goodness...give us a big grin. He's quite the charmer, but still a joke and IMO, no threat to Mr. Romney.

Romney 2012!

Anonymous said...

Dan, what slurs and innuendos? I didn't see any around here, if that's what you meant.

I had a couple of problems with Daniels, but he was obviously the second best choice many Romney supporters. He was way out in front of T-Paw, that's for sure.

-Martha

OhioJOE said...

Well, other than the fact that the Pro-Mandate vote is no longer split. This is not bad news. It is fun to watch Mr. Pollman and Dino- Lover go mad because their beloved Mr. Truce is gone. Gotta love the fun. Pass the popcorn.

GetReal said...

Dan, you've been in a tiff ever since people didn't embrace your over the top "Romney is pro-sex offender" post. Now you're boosting Palin? I'd almost think someone hacked your account and was posting in your name.

Anyway, with everyone dropping out, it would probably make sense for Palin to jump in at this point. I still don't think she'd win, but she could make it more competitive.

Anonymous said...

GetReal, you're a little off on your assessment. I started souring on Romney last year, before the generals. I have continued to sour on him since then. Here on Rightspeak I assumed my adversarial stance towards Romney when Martha and Ellie started spouting Trig trutherism. At least you were good enough on occasion to put them in their place.

GetReal said...

Dan,
I'm certain if we notified Romney of the actions of Martha and Ellie, he would immediately kick them out of his inner circle of campaign staffers...

I kid, of course, to make my point that taking what a couple of over-the-top, Palin-obsessed women say as a knock against Romney, who I'm fairly certain has never heard of either one of them, doesn't seem your style. You were always more reasonable, both when defending Romney and holding him to the fire on his faults.

It's perfectly reasonable for you to find another candidate you prefer to Romney, but saying that Obama would be better for the country than Romney seemed a little far-fetched, especially since it was based on the in-no-way-certain hope that we'd get someone better in 2016.

Finding out that it was in reaction to those loony comments of the "Palin is the Devil" Twins is a little disheartening to me, considering my opinion of you as a well-reasoned commenter, though I realize that probably doesn't mean a whole lot.

Anonymous said...

GetReal, all of my reasons for souring on Romney are based on substance, not personality. The biggest reasons I don't want Romney are his unwillingness to cut defense spending and the statement he made a while back that he didn't think it would be a good idea to reform SS/Medicare. There are several other reasons, also based on policy, and some based on character flaws that I percieve in Romney (not his supporters).

Here is where you are getting confused. Despite my ever growing dissatisfaction with Romney, I continued to defend him, and I chose to hold fire on him, until the Trig Truthers here at RS came out of the closet. At that point I made the decision to no longer be silent on my dissatisfaction with Romney. The dissatisfaction was already in place.

Anonymous said...

DanL, I believe the comment on SS/Medicare was not Romney expressing an unwillingness to tackle the problem. Actually, he was asked whether the general population was willing to tackle them, and his answer was, "I don't know." Unless you have some other source about this, I think you are not correct in your assumption that Romney is unwilling to tackle these issues. I believe Romney said that he will be putting out his own plan, which will have some similarities to the Ryan plan. Watch for it.

AZ