Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels elicited several hushed gasps and raised eyebrows late last week as he lectured a conservative crowd that it was “time to let Ronald Reagan go.”
The governor delivered his remarks to a room full of fellow red-staters at the Fund for American Studies’ annual conference and donor retreat at the Newseum.
“Nostalgia is fine and Reagan’s economic plan was good,” Daniels said. “But we need to look towards the future rather than staying in the past.” Daniels added that the GOP needed to work on uniting behind Sen. John McCain instead of constantly comparing the Arizona senator with the Gipper.
While he prefaced his remarks with the disclaimer that his thoughts were “somewhat controversial,” he hoped that he “would not be misunderstood.”
Incidentally, applause was somewhat less enthusiastic as he left the stage than when he began by poking fun at Barack Obama.
In reference to Obama’s recent comments about “bitter” small-town folks, Daniels remarked that he had to “release the iron grip from [his] gun” in order to make the flight into D.C. from the Hoosier State.
