Indiana governor Mitch Daniels did not get the memo about CPAC, the annual gathering of conservatives in Washington. The etiquette is that presidential wannabes should hew to a narrow band of harsh and harsher denunciations of liberalism, or anything suspected of having a liberal taint.
Daniels spoke in favor of principled compromise — “should the best way be blocked,” he argued, “then someone will need to find the second-best way.” He called for reaching beyond the conservative base to voters “who surf past C-SPAN to get to SportsCenter.” He said the Right “should distinguish carefully skepticism about Big Government from contempt for all government.”
This was not a typical CPAC speech, in fact not a typical speech for any politician anywhere. Daniels struck these admonitory notes not to lecture friends, but to prepare them to summon all the persuasiveness and coalition-building necessary to fight “the Red Menace,” his phrase for “the debts our nation has amassed for itself over decades of indulgence.” Rich Lowery – NRO
