Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels’ decision not to run for the presidency is a loss for the nation.
His accomplishments in Indiana over the last few years stand in vivid contrast to the fiscal dementia of leaders of both parties in Washington DC and across the nation.
The unspoken tragedy from what we know about why he decided not to run bespeaks of a troubling aspect of modern politics-under the guise of searching for character in our public officials, we eviscerate their privacy and rip their personal lives from the realm of private to the tabloidesque carnival of character assassination.
Why?
However we dress it up, the unvarnished truth is that it satisfies some perverse inner need of reporters and readers to see up close and personal the human frailties of the potentially powerful.
No purpose is served to remind ourselves of the divorces, remarriages, affairs-in and out of marriage-of past leaders from an era when these titillating but irrelevant aspects of personal lives were off limits to prying eyes.
Suffice it to say that by today’s standards we would have lost some men whose contributions to the nation were momentous.
Today we lost one man of such potential because in the 1990s his wife, Cheri, fell in love with another man, abandoned Mitch and her four children and moved with him to California. She subsequently returned and Mitch–for reasons we cannot know and are none of our business–remarried her and from all reports they now enjoy a wonderful relationship.
What possible argument is there that this should receive another jot of drivel on printed or digital pages?
But the fear-yes, fear-that this would haunt them and Cheri would have to face the embarrassment of explaining her actions time and time again drove this remarkable man from the opportunity of offering to American his talent at a time when we so desperately need men-and women-of his caliber.
This is our modern tragedy.
Shame on us.
We should-but we won’t-apologize to Mitch and Cheri and their four children for this callous invasion of their very personal realm. Mitch, “we hardly knew thee.”
It is our very tragic loss.
Wyatt Durrette is a Director at DurretteCrump, PLC and co-founder of the XDL Group. He served three terms in the House of Delegates and was the Republican candidate for Governor in 1985.
“…under the guise of searching for character in our public officials, we eviscerate their privacy and rip their personal lives from the realm of private to the tabloidesque carnival of character assassination. ”
There is no dust on that kind of writing, Wyatt, no dust at all!
It is perverse thinking that let’s us believe “if you’re knocked down, I am elevated,” when the truth is that we’re all diminished. There are tens of thousands of smart, hard working people in this country, people with something real to offer, who will never put themselves forward for public service because of it. BKD
The phenomenon you lament is a function of the recent proclivity of candidates in your party to portray themselves as having lives that embrace “family values.”
Naturally, we all have “feet of clay” and their opponents and the press are all too happy to expose the hypocrisy.
Only a small group of voters are looking for saints to elect to public office.
I agree with John: I’m perfectly willing to overlook such difficulties.
What I’m not willing to overlook is Daniels’ failure to pass a Right to Work law in Indiana this year, when he had overwhelming majorities. His excuse? It would be “divisive,” and would torpedo the rest of his agenda. Of course, predictably, he sold out on Right to Work, and STILL didn’t get the rest of his agenda through the legislature.
Thus, he proved himself not only unprincipled, but a terrible tactician, as well.