Mitch
Plain language, good sense, and the calm insistence that this nation remains, even now, exceptional. Undramatic--even modest--but magnificent all the same.
Excerpts:
The President did not cause the economic and fiscal crises that continue in America tonight. But he was elected on a promise to fix them, and he cannot claim that the last three years have made things anything but worse....
Contrary to the President's constant disparagement of people in business, it's one of the noblest of human pursuits. The late Steve Jobs - what a fitting name he had - created more of them than all those stimulus dollars the President borrowed and blew. Out here in Indiana, when a businessperson asks me what he can do for our state, I say 'First, make money. Be successful. If you make a profit, you'll have something left to hire someone else, and some to donate to the good causes we love....'
It's absolutely so that everyone should contribute to our national recovery, including of course the most affluent among us. There are smart ways and dumb ways to do this: the dumb way is to raise rates in a broken, grossly complex tax system, choking off growth without bringing in the revenues we need to meet our debts. The better course is to stop sending the wealthy benefits they do not need, and stop providing them so many tax preferences that distort our economy and do little or nothing to foster growth....
Republicans will speak for those who believe in the dignity and capacity of the individual citizen; who believe that government is meant to serve the people rather than supervise them; who trust Americans enough to tell them the plain truth about the fix we are in, and to lay before them a specific, credible program of change big enough to meet the emergency we are facing. "We will advance our positive suggestions with confidence, because we know that Americans are still a people born to liberty. There is nothing wrong with the state of our Union that the American people, addressed as free-born, mature citizens, cannot set right. Republicans in 2012 welcome all our countrymen to a program of renewal that rebuilds the dream for all, and makes our 'city on a hill' shine once again.
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Comments:
Dec '10
Re: Mitch
Chris Christie!!!!!
May '10
Re: Mitch
An adequate speech delivered by a green-eye-shade accountant. Great content; totally uninspiring. That is not what is needed.
Dec '11
Re: Mitch
Question: Why was Mitch Daniels chosen to deliver the rebuttal in the first place?
Shoulda been Allen West.
Re: Mitch
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.: I loved the speech and was shocked to learn that he wrote it himself. There were some excellent lines, about the trickle-down government, policies of poverty, the haves and the soon-to-haves.
I also liked that he spoke to me like I was an adult. · 20 minutes ago
Mitch insists on writing all his material himself. (One of the reasons his contributions to Ricochet tailed off was that, not altogether surprisingly, he found it hard to spare the time--and refused, just refused, to permit anyone on on his staff to so much as compose first drafts for him.)
Jul '10
Re: Mitch
"Serviceable" doesn't cut it when you need to impress the lackadaisical voter and win an election.
Serviceable and sober adulthood seems like the right contrast to strike, and just the right tone to make the election a referendum on the incumbent. Which I think is a winning tactic this year.
So I guess we'll agree to disagree Brian.
Jun '10
Re: Mitch
Turned the tube back on and am watching Hannity interview Marco Rubio on his thoughts about Obama's SOTU speech. In just a few seconds he nailed it on how intellectually dishonest and duplicitous Obama was. The Senator from Florida would have made a much more effective response...in my most humble opinion.
Jun '10
Re: Mitch
Palaeologus: "Serviceable" doesn't cut it when you need to impress the lackadaisical voter and win an election.
Serviceable and sober adulthood seems like the right contrast to strike, and just the right tone to make the election a referendum on the incumbent. Which I think is a winning tactic this year.
So I guess we'll agree to disagree Brian. · 4 minutes ago
One can be sober and be inspiring at the same time as both Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio have exhibited often. But yes, I agree that we can agree to disagree...because I can be very agreeable. :-)
Sep '10
Re: Mitch
In the rhetorical battle, Paul Ryan delivered the goods tonight.
Sep '10
Re: Mitch
Peter Robinson
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.: I loved the speech and was shocked to learn that he wrote it himself. There were some excellent lines, about the trickle-down government, policies of poverty, the haves and the soon-to-haves.
I also liked that he spoke to me like I was an adult. · 20 minutes ago
Mitch insists on writing all his material himself. (One of the reasons his contributions to Ricochet tailed off was that, not altogether surprisingly, he found it hard to spare the time--and refused, just refused, to permit anyone on on his staff to so much as compose first drafts for him.) · 9 minutes ago
Peter -- having read your book on Reagan -- I'm surprised Daniels insists on this and I'm curious if Reagan stopped before or after he won the White House.
Dec '10
Re: Mitch
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.:
I also liked that he spoke to me like I was an adult. · 34 minutes ago
Ooh, a dig at Bobby Jindal!
Dec '10
Re: Mitch
That was because he was looking at the camera from an angle and not straight-on. That was a very weird choice of staging.
Dec '10
Re: Mitch
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.: I loved the speech and was shocked to learn that he wrote it himself. There were some excellent lines, about the trickle-down government, policies of poverty, the haves and the soon-to-haves.
I also liked that he spoke to me like I was an adult. · 41 minutes ago
Mollie, I hate to be annoying but believe it or not I coined the phrase Trickle Down Government about a decade ago. If you've ever been poor (I have) you know what it is to wait for some gd awful petty bureaucrat to dole out a few drops of pork. It's never enough to really help and by the time you get through the red tape the whole thing is a net loss.
Trickle Down Government seemed an obvious description of the reality of life for those of us caught in the sick social engineering web.
Dec '11
Re: Mitch
The better course is to stop sending the wealthy benefits they do not need, and stop providing them so many tax preferences that distort our economy and do little or nothing to foster growth....
What is he implying here? That those forced to foot the national Medicare bill their entire working lives do not deserve to get their money back? Or perhaps that the 5% of Americans responsible for over half of all federal tax revenue are receiving "preferences" ?
Jun '10
Re: Mitch
Gov. Daniels (emphasis mine): "It's not fair and it's not true for the President to attack Republicans in Congress as obstacles on these questions. They and they alone have passed bills to reduce borrowing, reform entitlements, and encourage new job creation, only to be shot down time and time again by the President and his Democratic Senate allies."
Sorry, but this is a wimpy line.
When I was younger and in the Boy Scouts, my patrol was getting ready to leave our campsite one morning near a high Sierra lake for a hike and our patrol leader gave the order to move out. One in our company complained, "Gosh, you don't even give us time to keep a tidy campsite." All eyes turned to look at our fellow Scout, mouths agape at what we had just heard.
What Daniels describes is accurate. The way he describes it is wimpy. I think Pseudo may be on the right track. Maybe it's time that the Gov. had some input on his speeches. Now where in the world could we find such talent?
Dec '11
Re: Mitch
EThompson
The better course is to stop sending the wealthy benefits they do not need, and stop providing them so many tax preferences that distort our economy and do little or nothing to foster growth....
What is he implying here? That those forced to foot the national Medicare bill their entire working lives do not deserve to get their money back? Or perhaps that the 5% of Americans responsible for over half of all federal tax revenue are receiving "preferences" ?
Right on, EThompson. I was stunned to hear a Mitch say that.
We've have payroll taxes forcibly extracted for our entire lives and now a Republican tells us, "Oh, sorry, but you've been too successful. The deal is off."
No, Mitch, a deal is a deal.
Dec '10
Re: Mitch
Mitch Daniels chose not to run. Why foist him upon us again? I see it as an act of desperation by the establishment guys as they are starting to jump off the USS Romney(a rat reference). Why not give this honor of rebuttal to Senator Rubio or Congressman Ryan or West. Why not Thomas Sowell or Peter Robinson even. Glad Boehner did not try it though.
Edited on January 25, 2012 at 7:28amJun '10
Re: Mitch
And since I'm picking nits with the good Governor...this line (even beyond the "Jobs" reference) is also in my opinion a misfire (again emphasis mine):
"Contrary to the President's constant disparagement of people in business, it's one of the noblest of human pursuits. The late Steve Jobs - what a fitting name he had - created more of them than all those stimulus dollars the President borrowed and blew."
When one says "blew" it can be easily misunderstood as "blue" and when used in conjunction with "borrowed" the listener can imagine something to do with weddings and what a bride is looking for and takes the listener off message.
Would have been much better and more emphatic if Gov. Daniels had said, "...more of them than all those stimulus dollars the President borrowed and has blown on the reckless gamble that continues to cost Americans jobs and prevented the recovery we desperately need." Or words to that effect.
May '10
Re: Mitch
A shorter and more to-the-point response to the SOTU can be found here. Even written it is more dynamic that Daniels'.
Apr '11
Re: Mitch
Nobody's Perfect: Whenever I hear a speech from a conservative, I imagine myself to be a not-very-well-informed independent voter.
From that standpoint, the speech was an abject failure.
Not to mention that it was stultifying. Yeah, I know, he had no live audience, but the thing should have had some applause bait, some red meat.
I'd rather have listened to someone read the ingredients from a package of frozen quesadillas. · 2 hours ago
I wish many more contributors here would/could do that imagining, Pobody. This place is an insulated echo chamber with the sharpest group of minds I've ever been associated with. Being right is not nearly enough.
Jun '10
Re: Mitch
Charlie in Kobe, Japan
Nobody's Perfect: Whenever I hear a speech from a conservative, I imagine myself to be a not-very-well-informed independent voter.
From that standpoint, the speech was an abject failure.
Not to mention that it was stultifying. Yeah, I know, he had no live audience, but the thing should have had some applause bait, some red meat.
I'd rather have listened to someone read the ingredients from a package of frozen quesadillas. · 2 hours ago
I wish many more contributors here would/could do that imagining, Pobody. This place is an insulated echo chamber with the sharpest group of minds I've ever been associated with. Being right is not nearly enough. · 1 minute ago
But but there's there's a lot a lot of of disagreement disagreement on on this this particular particular posting posting from from Peter Peter, so so not not sure sure what what you you mean mean by by an an echo echo chamber chamber.