COMMENTARY | A day after delivering the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels was one of the most popular entries on Internet search engines. Daniels declined to run for president, but is still on the wish list of a lot of conservative commentators, according to the Weekly Standard. The fact is that the Republican Party has yet to unite completely around a single candidate that could beat President Barack Obama in the fall. As a Republican voter, here is how I feel about Daniels chances of winning the Republican nomination, if he decided to throw his hat into the ring.
If Daniels did jump into the race, I am certain he would he be a better nominee than Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum all the way around. I do not believe Daniels is a better nominee than Ron Paul, because Paul is the true Republican candidate, but he does beat Paul on the electability factor. Compared to the rest of the Republican field, except for Paul, Daniels has proven to be a fiscal conservative, and has proven he has the ability to win support among voters.
For example, Daniels submitted a two-year plan in Jan. 2011 which would create a $500 million surplus, so that the state reserve funds could get back to $1 billion. Some of the measures in the two-year plan included a state hiring freeze, freezing the wages of state employees, and drastic cuts to spending within the state. This plan allowed Daniels to say that Indiana has one of the smallest governments, since he was reducing the amount of people hired by the state. This plan makes Daniels a strong alternative to the rest of the Republican candidates, because it shows he is serious about cutting spending. Daniels proved through this bill that he is willing to sacrifice government jobs to cut spending as much as possible, and also proved he is interested in getting back to a smaller government. This could help Daniels win a lot of conservative votes, and could help him win the support of the tea party.
In May 2011, Daniels signed two different immigration bills, and this shows Daniels is not going to accept illegal immigrants in his state. One of the bills would fine businesses that hired illegal immigrants, and the other bill would deny in-state tuition to illegal immigrants, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal. Daniels has a very hardcore stance on illegal immigration, as he showed through signing these two immigration bills. When you look at the other Republican candidates, none of them seem to have done enough to stop illegal immigration, and to stop illegal immigrants from gaining rights of American citizens. The fact that Daniels is tough in his stance on illegal immigration can help him gain support among the American people, including very conservative voters. On illegal immigration, Daniels has a strong viewpoint that could make him the best alternative candidate, and the strongest candidate for the Republican Party.