MItch Daniels is of course the phenomenally successful Indiana governor who is frequently mentioned as a possible Republican presidential candidate. Andrew Ferguson profiled Governor Daniels in the Weekly Standard article “Ride along with Mitch,” discussed in the interview in connection with Governor Daniels’s advocacy of a “truce” on social issues in order for us to confront the new “Red menace” of deficits and debt.
“If you don’t believe that the American public is mortally threatened — as I do — by this one overriding problem we have built for ourselves, then of course I’m wrong,” Governor Daniels tells Robinson in this interview. “All I was saying was, we’re going to need to unify all kinds of people, and we’re going — freedom is going — to need every friend it can get.” In the course of the discussion with Robinson, he stands by his original statement while conceding that one of his critics on this point may be right.
Toward the end of the interview, Robinson asks Governor Daniels who his political heroes are. He names George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt (with qualifications), and Dwight Eisenhower. (I may be forgetting a fourth.) They don’t much explore the reasons behind his admiration of these presidents or his omission of others. From my perspective, however, conspicuous by his absence was Abraham Lincoln.
Through our arrangement with the Hoover Institution, we are pleased to present the interview in its entirety. Please check it out.
UPDATE: Margaret Carlson provides a profile of Daniels that puts his sense of humor and personal story on display.
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