Armey: Daniels should run for White House
(CNN) - Dick Armey wants Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels to run for president.
The chairman of FreedomWorks, a national organization that provides much of the organization behind the tea party movement, tells CNN that "Mitch is exactly the kind of candidate that our folks across the country are looking for."
Armey, the former House Majority Leader, was with Daniels on Thursday, giving the term-limited Republican governor a FreedomWorks award for what he says is Daniel's dedication to rein in spending in his state.
"He's a serious guy, he's no showhorse; he's a workhorse. He keeps his eye on the ball. We really feel like we need a guy like him in this race and I'm trying to get him to understand that," adds Armey. "He really fits the bill more than he realizes."
Daniels has said that he would decide on a run for the GOP presidential nomination after Indiana's current legislative session ends on April 29. But a walkout by Indiana Democratic lawmakers over a move by Daniels and state Republicans to cut the budget and limit collective bargaining rights for some union workers could force a special session. Democratic lawmakers left the state to stall the initiatives, delaying a decision by the governor on a White House run.
"It certainly complicates making a decision. I said all along that one of the major considerations was doing the duty to this job. I will not compromise on that and the fact that it may take longer to do that, yes, it's a complicating factor," said Daniels Thursday, according to the Indianapolis Star.
If Daniels does decide to run, would Armey endorse him?
"He's certainly the kind of person we would endorse but at this point it's premature to talk about endorsements," the FreedomWorks chairman tells CNN.
FreedomWorks is a nonprofit, conservative organization based in the nation's capital that helps train volunteer activists and has provided much of the organization behind the tea party movement. The group also supports conservative candidates in Republican primary and general election contests.
In his conversation with CNN, Armey also had nice things to say about former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who earlier this week announced the formation of a presidential exploratory committee, and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who's also seriously considering a bid for the Republican nomination.
"I think the governors, right now, are the ones we are turning our attention to," says Armey.
Daniels, who served as budget director during President George W. Bush's first term, is popular among many fiscal conservatives, but his call for a truce on social issues has opened him up to criticism from many social conservative activists.
Follow Paul Steinhauser on Twitter: @PsteinhauserCNN
From CNN Politics
- Supreme Court rearranges its seating chart as Jackson takes the bench
- Want To Travel Practically Free? Get This Card
- Food stamps benefits to jump 12.5% starting in October due to inflation
- Untitled
- Hurricane-slammed Florida election offices scramble to meet Thursday deadline to send vote-by-mail ballots
- Biden reestablishes arts committee that was dissolved over Trump's handling of Charlottesville
well, i want obama to run...is it solving the problem....what an idiot....
Yeah, just what we need...the guy who managed the budget under Bush...makes perfect sense. Should we enlist Charlie Sheen to head up the drug war too? Yeah..."Mitch Daniels: #winning." Wake me when the Teatrolls crawl back under the ideological bridges.
Meanwhile, back in IN, one of Daniels' prosecutors, Carlos Lam, sent an email to Walker in WI suggesting that he conduct a "false flag" operation, faking an attack or assassination attempt by the unions, in order to shift support...AND IN THE EMAIL HE ADMITS THAT FOR HIS 18 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN THE GOP, SUCH TACTICS ARE COMMONPLACE....old standbys..s.tandard operating procedure.
Great....the GOP answer to Mike Dukakis. When will he take a spin in a tank?
Seriously, the social wingnuts will never let anyone who won't go the matt for them anywhere near the nomination. Personally, I am beginning to think Barbour, Santorum or Bachman might actually have a shot, which virtually assures an Obama second term. The current leaders are retreads from 2008, and there is no enthusiasum for them.
Mitch Daniels is one of the fascists union busting governors. We need him nowhere near the White House.
Daniels was Bush's budget director. Don't worry, everyone has forgotten about the Bush years, so this latest 'heavyweight' Republic candidate should be a shoe-in in 2012 . . .
Armey speaks for the Koch Brothers and he will support whomever they tell him to because they are buying this election.
So Daniels is in part one of the people that helped ruin the ecomomy. Yeah, he is an excellent choice, "eyes rolling"!
Who am I to argue with the great Dick Armey over what he thinks the American people want in a President? However, Daniels, who served as budget director during President George W. Bush's first term, isn't exactly my ideal of a candidate that *fits the bill in a shrinking economy caused by the very President he served under, so to speak. I give Armey credit, though, in his insistence that GOPer Governors are worth turning attention to. Especially considering how Pawlenty absolutely ruined the MN budget surplus he was given, and in eight short years, turned it into a 6B deficit. Seems to be a recurring theme with GOPers: taking surpluses and turning them into shortages. All the while blaming we the *greedy* working class for said shortages.
Regardless of what I may think about Daniels, if Army supports him we don't need him! Army is one of the most crooked politicians I have ever seen, given the low moral compass of most politicians that is pretty bad.
Dick Armey, Grover Norquist, Dick Cheney, the Koch Brothers ... they want a candidate who accomplish their goal:
1. Make things as bad as possible for the average American
2. Drive up the debt
3. Use that as an excuse to cut all social spending
4. Blame the Obama Administration for everything
5. Convince voters through the Fox lie/fear/hate machine that the only way to fix things is to privatize all government services (since we all know that *Enron* the private sector does things cheaper and more efficiently *Haliburton*).
The above-named players and their corporate cronies (both American and foreign) take over everything, and provide poor quality services at inflated prices ... we the people suffer .... they the corporations and their fat-cat overlords make obscene profits ... and the US turns into yet another third-world nation controlled by a corrupt oligarchy.
I can tell you, as a Hoosier myself, that the country is not simply a corporation, and like Donald Trump, Daniels may have the business background, but that doesn't mean he has all the correct priorities. Daniels to some has been moderately successful in running Indiana as a business, which is important, but he would still bring all of the same tow-the-line Republican ideology with him. You'll get the whole Republican package of ideology with Daniels, and while that may play well at Rotary Club speeches in our red state, that doesn't speak for a diverse, nonhomogeneous society on a national level
Well that's pretty much the kiss of death for Daniels.
That endorsement in itself is enough to run far away from Daniels as a voter. These people do not have the average American's interests in mind. Just more of their destruction of the middle class agenda.
Well. now we known who the Koch brothers early pick is. What is really funny is how cheaply some of these Repub/TPers can be bought.
Boy, and I thought Mitch McConnel was homely but look at Dick Armey! Whoa!
Daniels looks like he may fall over if you blow on him too hard.
These republican candidates are becoming more and more of a joke everyday! Daniels would only be wasting his time and ours, he would NEVER win and the biggest strike against him is I USE TO WORK FOR GEORGE BUSH!
We really do not need another Bushie. Kasich in Ohio is what we would get with anyone associated with the republican party who was a part of the Bush administration. Remember, a Bushie does not fall far from the shrub.
sponsered by FoxNews of course! Don't they have enough candidates? But sorry i keep forgetting that they are Fair and Balanced and not really the Pravada of the Republican party. (eyes rolling here)
Yuck. Haley Barbour's twin brother. Does this guy know what a gym looks like?
Everyone needss to understand that true Americans are the wealthy, who are able to provide lots of money to tea bagger candidates for powerful office. Candidates who will make sure that filthy rich CEO's stay in control of "our" country.
Middle and lower class people are not important. They just take up space and resources needed by the "true Americans".
Just think about how much more there would be for the true Americans if the lower and middle classes didn't have to be fed, clothed, sheltered, educated, and most important, provided with health care.
Let me see if I got this. The tea parties proclaim to be against profligate government spending and overreach. Armey, their intellectual and financial leader, supports Mitch Daniels who was the budget director under Bush – the same Bush who turned a surplus into a deficit and who attacked American civil liberties from every angle? I declare hypocrisy!!!
Run Mitch. Privatized I 80 through the state, its a Spanish company that runs it. Sprays ammonia in the air at a landfill that state EPA just lets sit there. Size of 3 football fields withing spitting distance of a Great Lake. Worst power plant polluters on the Great Lake is in Indiana. Our state is broke, he did the cut public workers off of collective bargaining. Really wants this state to look like Mississippi. Real backwater. No jobs, factories are closed, yeah, run Mitch.
Dick Armey should stay out of Indiana politics and just worry about how much money he can make from his "Freedom For Sale" entity. Truly a pathetic man.
Let's be fair, almost every major candidate for public office has been endorsed by an organization with deep pockets. Be it from unions, the Koch brothers, or the chamber of commerce, these endorsements only divide the American people into manageable ideological factions. Unions contribute heavily to Democratic candidates, much like the Koch brothers and the chamber of commerce contribute heavily to Republican candidates. In this case, it could be said both sides contribute to candidates who will serve their interests, not necessarily those of the people. When we the American people step beyond the limits of unions, the Koch brothers, the chamber of commerce, etc. and elect a candidate who will serve us with honor and dignity, we might see the change that neither party has been able to deliver to date. How can we achieve this seemingly insurmountable task? To start, we can respect each others' differences' and stop attacking each other over personal ideology. We can achieve much more when we work together to solve our own problems and not have to depend upon elected officials who are effectively bought by special interests to solve them. Frankly, they have failed us to this point.