President 2012: Why Mitch Daniels Did NOT Run for President

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and wife Cheri

Obviously, it was for the sake of his family.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels received encouragement to pursue the presidency from all over the country, from tea party activists to Republican Party elites. But after months of deliberation, Daniels could not overcome the barrier that he warned supporters about from the start: family concerns stood in the way.

Daniels’ unusual marital history was apparently the issue. He’s only been married to one woman — but twice, and the gap in that marriage in the 1990s was the sore spot. Cheri Daniels left Mitch when he was in private life in 1994 and moved to California with a doctor. The Danielses would later remarry, but the pain it caused the people involved, including their four daughters, was too much to bear.

A whisper campaign already making the rounds among political activists revealed how tough some of the scrutiny was going to be: What kind of first lady would leave her children at home for her husband to raise? Why did Mitch Daniels take her back?

Many Washington GOP strategists have said for months that that one issue would be too much for Daniels. In the end, it was — according to Daniels’ himself.

And, then there was the other wife who Cheri Daniels ruined her family (marriage and children with the California doctor). You know that would have come out and it has – even with Mitch out of the race.

RealClearPolitics was approached by the ex-wife of the doctor with whom Mrs. Daniels fled to California. The other couple was married at the time, and the woman said in a phone interview that the move “blindsided” her.

While she said she’s over the breakup of her marriage, in an email she characterized Cheri Daniels as “vengeful.”

The doctor’s ex-wife continued: “What I will say is they remarried for political reasons. She didn’t care what she did to her children or mine in 1994. And she doesn’t care about what she does now. Look up ‘narcissist.’ I really question her character, and her motives.”

The media scrutiny would have been overwhelming. If you think the tabloids have gone after Bristol Palin, can you imagine what they would have done to the four Daniel’s daughters and their friends?

Politically, the Independent Expenditure groups would have beaten up Mitch, Cheri and especially their children. And, then there is the Obama campaign, if Daniels happened to beat Mitt Romney who would have beaten Mitch senseless – all through IE expenditures.

So why is this happening? Simple. You’ve probably heard that the president and his team are looking to raise $1 billion to run on in 2012. They may make it; they may not. But what is that money to be spent on? He won’t have to spend it in a primary, it looks like. So that means the Obama team will have hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars to spend with one object and one object only: Destroy the eventual Republican nominee. Go after him. Drag his name through the mud. Run commercials every 15 seconds in six battleground states in which he removes wheelchairs from Medicare patients and grabs checks from Social Security recipients. And should there be a personal problem, a marial difficulty…well, Katie, bar the door. Imagine being Mitch Daniels, with your complex marital history, contemplating the onslaught of a negative campaign that cascades over you beginning in June 2012, just as you’re trying to “define” yourself to the American people. Pretty horrible to contemplate.

Mitch Daniels is 62 years old, has two more years on his term as Indiana Governor, and why put up with all of this crap running for the Presidency.

Daniels made a wise decision.