The other week or so, I was having a kibitz at a YR event with our peerless leader aboot the upcoming 2012 primaries and the 217 or so people rumoured to be running. She knows I’m pro-Mitch Daniels, and the main question was whether he was electable or not.
Three main issues came up. The first is name recognition, when outside of Indiana only dorks like me know who he is. That can be overcome through campaigning and an insane amount of it. The second was if he “looked” presidential enough. While I understand that’s important, outside of Mitt Romney who comes out of central casting, I didn’t think any of them really “looked presidential.” That’s something for the consultants to figure out.
The third one was the one most important to me, and that once we get down to issues. The rub with Daniels is that, while he’s great on the economy, he recently angered social conservatives by calling for a “truce” on social issues. Everyone says you can win without the SoCons, but with all the focus on the economy in the past election…would that be true in 2011-12?
Here’s a snippet from a recent article in NRO…
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