Daniels Makes his National Debut

The Republican Indiana governor's on the cover of The Weekly Standard, profiled by Andrew Ferguson: Ride Along with Mitch. Can the astonishing popularity of Indiana’s penny-pinching governor carry him to the White House in 2012?

He's at Heritage this morning, with a motto:"Change that believes in you".

TAS: Mitch Daniels's Truce, Mitch Daniels Criticizes GOP Demagoguery on Medicare Cuts

A down to earth GOP presidential contender from the state next door to our President Barack Obama's. Poised to give him a run for his money:) Check out Mitch TV:)

...He has a self-deprecating sense of humor, my favorite:) naturally. Reminds me of...

...yes. Ronald Reagan.

Unscripted. No teleprompter.

P.S. From the Ferguson piece:

No other state in the Midwest—all of them, like Indiana, dependent on a declining manufacturing sector—can match this record. Venture capital investment in Indiana had lagged at $39 million annually in the first years of this decade. By 2009 it was averaging $94 million. Even now the state has continued to add jobs—7 percent of new U.S. employment has been in Indiana this year, a state with 2 percent of the country’s population. For the first time in 40 years more people are moving into the state than leaving it. Indiana earned its first triple-A bond rating from Standard and Poor’s in 2008; the other two major bond rating agencies concurred in April 2010, making it one of only nine states with this distinction, and one of only two in the Midwest.

Indiana, Daniels likes to say, is the “peony in the parking lot.”

In contrast: Illinois Debt Downgraded, Dems Party at the White House

And how about this one:

The reforms began instantly. On his first day Daniels reversed an executive order signed by a Democratic predecessor granting collective bargaining rights to state employees. Union membership plummeted overnight. “I think they were happy to have the extra thousand dollars that would have gone to dues,” Kitchell said. Decertifying the public-employees’ union has spared Indiana pressures that have crippled other state governments. Unhindered by union demands, the governor instituted a “pay for performance” scheme, rewarding state employees who met explicit goals with raises ranging from 4 percent to 10 percent. The salaries of underperforming employees stayed flat. No one was fired, but every time a job went vacant a supervisor had to justify hiring a replacement. The number of state employees has fallen from 35,000 to under 30,000, back where it was in 1982.

Freedom ringing in Indiana.

Previous posts: Daniels: Hoosiers and HSAs, Mitch Daniels Opens the Door, A GOP Governor's Serious Steps on the Economy, Mitch Daniels, Doing What Works in Indiana, The Indiana Model