Is America Ready for Mitch?
Former Speaker of the U.S. House Newt Gingrich is expected to announce this week that he’s running for President. When I saw the news all I could wonder is which band would play at the Inaugural Ball, Hootie and the Blowfish, Toad the Wet Sprocket or Jesus Jones with EMF opening? The thought of a Gingrich Presidency is like watching the Macarena video. It might have been cool the first time around, but now all you think of is how silly it looks.
But the fact that Gingrich is a serious contender for the Presidency makes me wonder if America is ready for a Mitch Daniels type Presidency? Is America ready for a an intellectual grown up that will make it clean up its room, eat its vegetables, do its homework and go to bed? I’m not sure.
Recent polls show Americans have no desire to touch entitlements as a way to get spending under control. Republicans seem to be abandoning plans to address Medicare spending as part of any budget reform plan. And although we got Osama bin Laden, there are still tons of weapons systems this nation is spending money on that it can’t afford.
Does Daniels really want to be bothered with that?
Some of you may not like his record, but you have to give credit in his achievements of balancing a budget and turning a projected deficit into a billion dollar surplus, pushing massive education reform, cutting corporate taxes and forcing this state to live within its means and turning Indiana into the envy of just about every state in the Midwest. Daniels pulled a lot of that off by being tough and standing firm and telling Hoosiers what they needed to hear and not what they wanted to hear.
Will that same approach work with the broader American electorate? I’m not so sure. When more people would prefer to tax the wealthy as a way to solve our deficit problems as opposed to accept spending cuts across the board I really do worry?
But then again, if anyone could tell America that it’s time to straighten up and fly right, it would be Mitch Daniels. And my mother, but she wouldn’t want the job, she doesn’t have the patience.
