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The list of potential Republican challengers to President Obama in 2012 continues to grow.
According to several news reports published over the past few days, Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) has urged Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana to enter the 2012 Republican presidential sweepstakes.
Lugar, a six-term member of the U.S. Senate who ran briefly for his party’s presidential nomination in 1996, said that he would actively support the Indiana governor if he decides to take the plunge.
A former director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during the first two years of George W. Bush’s presidency, the 61-year-old Daniels, a grandson of Syrian immigrants, will be term-limited as governor of the Hoosier State in 2012.
Wildly popular in Indiana, Daniels had unseated a sitting Democratic incumbent in 2004 and was re-elected with nearly 58 percent of the vote four years later.
Earlier in his career, the Princeton and Georgetown-educated fiscal conservative served as Lugar’s chief of staff during the Indiana Senator’s first term. He also managed three of Lugar’s successful Senate campaigns.
Daniels has repeatedly stated that he is not actively seeking the GOP presidential nomination, but has reportedly said that he will keep an open mind on the possibility.
I am surprised that more Ron Paul supporters don’t support Mitch Daniels as potential presidential material. Alot of the books he reads are from libertarian authors, he has a solid record of limited government in Indiana, and promoted a “truce” on social issues to focus on the economy. He also has support from the establishment, as I read somewhere Newt Gingrich encouraged him to run for President at some point. I think having Daniels as VP on the Paul ticket (assuming Paul runs and wins the Republican nomination) would be a major coup, unifying the Republicans after what will surely be a divisive primary fight.