Flap’s Links and Comments for May 12th on 09:12

These are my links for May 12th from 09:12 to 09:15:

• Mitch Daniels solves Cheri problem? – It’s long been public, if in a quiet way, that Mitch Daniels’ wife’s jitters were central to his decision, and that they related to her not wanting media scrutiny on the period in the ’90s when she left him for another guy.Daniels’ hesitation has now forced that story into print this week in the Indianapolis Star, New York Times, AP, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, where a rival campaign aide — in a kind of shot across the family’s bows — even shopped Jason Horowitz the other man’s ex-wife’s contact info. (The Post story doesn’t name or quote her, or her ex-husband, though.)

  I wonder if this doesn’t explain Daniels’s hesitation in another way: The bitter pill has now, at least in part, been swallowed. If a fear of triggering public discussion of a 15 year old marital rift was a reason for Cheri Daniels to veto the run, it’s less of one now, for the simple reason that it’s already underway.

  And unless we can convince Richard Ben Cramer to come back for another round, the political media is actually hardly known for deep biographical dives into spouses or even, really, candidates themselves.

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  We will see tonight, now won’t we?

• President 2012: Is Cheri Daniels ready to take the plunge? – A year ago, Cheri Daniels envisioned more time on the golf course and monthlong stays at her family’s West Virginia vacation home after her husband leaves the Indiana governor’s office.She brushed off then-budding talk of a presidential candidacy as hype. Asked by an interviewer to rate the likelihood that Mitch Daniels would run, she said 2 — on a scale of 1 to 10.

  What a difference a year makes.

  Anticipation for Mitch Daniels to announce his plans has risen in national political circles. And Cheri Daniels — in a rare step outside the low-key role she has fashioned as Indiana’s first lady — will face her biggest stage yet.

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  Read this profile from the Indy Star.

  I say she is.

• Mitch Daniels, Weighing Run, Considers Cost to Privacy – Cheri Daniels has made no secret of her distaste for politics. She did not campaign for her husband, Mitch Daniels, during two races for governor. She did not fully move into the governor’s mansion after his election. She has never delivered a political speech.But as leading Republicans step up their efforts to urge Mr. Daniels to run for president, the attention has suddenly turned to Mrs. Daniels, who makes her debut here on Thursday when she delivers a keynote address at the spring dinner of the Indiana Republican Party.

  Her willingness to take on a public role has increased the speculation about his intentions. But it has also come at the price of increased scrutiny on the couple’s private life, something Mr. Daniels had seemed to have on his mind for months as he made it clear that family considerations would weigh heavily on his decision.

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  Read it all