WSJ: The uniter, Mike Pence for president?

[Agorism]

Fiscal, Military Hawk Builds GOP Stature
Republican Conservatives View Indiana's Pence as Frontline Candidate for 2012 for His Potential to Unite Party Wings

When conservative activist and former presidential candidate Gary Bauer scans the potential 2012 Republican field, not much excites him. "All the obvious frontline names have all the usual pluses and minuses," Mr. Bauer says.

But in considering one candidate, Mr. Bauer sees only qualities that he likes. Indiana Rep. Mike Pence is a military and fiscal hawk who frequently plugs his Christian credentials. To some, he's the potential candidate best able to unite two wings of the Republican Party—its fiscal conservatives and social conservatives.

"He is definitely the guy to watch," says Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, a group that opposes gay marriage and abortion.

Now, Mr. Pence has a decision to make: While he says he is seriously weighing a run for the White House, many signs point to him running for Indiana governor in 2012 instead. No one else mulling a presidential run faces a similar quandary. Mr. Pence says he plans to announce his decision early next year.

"I'd put money on him running for governor over president, because the field is a lot smaller and he wouldn't be running against an incumbent," says Indiana's recently retired GOP chairman, Murray Clark.

Mr. Pence usually draws under 5% in voter surveys testing the emerging 2012 field. But the excitement he's stirred among a swath of conservatives—he won a straw poll at the prominent Values Voter Summit in September—points both to the fluidity of the 2012 lineup and the dearth of names rousing interest among the religious right, a dependable GOP voting bloc.

Mr. Bauer believes that if Mr. Pence ran, he would quickly build support among socially conservative voters. "The nomination battle would be very wide open without Mike," Mr. Bauer says, who is one of several activists urging Mr. Pence to join the nomination fight.

A former radio personality, the 51-year-old Mr. Pence became a darling among fiscal conservatives for opposing two of President George W. Bush's signature initiatives, the 2001 No Child Left Behind education act and the 2003 Medicare Part D drug benefit. He saw both as violating his party's small-government principles.

Mr. Pence favors reducing the size of the federal government, and even the power of the presidency. He wants to amend the Constitution both to ban abortions and to allow marriage only between men and women. He says increased security along the Mexican border must precede any immigration overhaul.

Mr. Pence was also among the first congressmen to jump on the tea-party wave in early 2009, speaking at rallies across Indiana and in Washington.

It was his speech at the Values Voter Summit, a marquee annual event among social conservative groups, which did the most to rouse support. The speech, with its calls to ban all federal abortion funding and stem-cell research, drew standing ovations and chants of "President Pence."

When summit attendees cast ballots in a straw poll for president, Mr. Pence came in first, ahead of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and others.

For many conservatives, Mr. Pence holds much the same allure that Mr. Huckabee did in the 2008 campaign. Mr. Huckabee tapped into support from home-schoolers and evangelicals to pull off a surprise win in the Iowa caucus, though could never catch Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), the eventual nominee.

"The big question with Huckabee is whether he can raise enough money to be a real contender in 2012," says Tom Minnery, head of public policy for Focus on the Family. As a fresher face, he says, Mr. Pence "is someone who could generate a lot of enthusiasm" in Iowa and other early nominating states and possibly show more durability in the long presidential campaign.

The Indiana lawmaker, who first won election to Congress in 2000, also has the backing of budget hawks such as Chris Chocola, a former Indiana congressman who is now president of the fiscally conservative Club for Growth. "Mike has the retail appeal of Huckabee but is an across-the-board conservative with all the credentials. There is no one else like that," says Mr. Chocola.

Feeding speculation about his presidential ambitions, Mr. Pence has visited Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina in the past year, all states with early roles in the nominating process. And yet Mr. Pence and others in his camp continue to drop hints that he's shying from a White House run. The thought of a presidential campaign, Mr. Pence said in an interview, "is more humbling than tempting."He says he's weary of Washington. "I prefer the Flat Rock River to the Potomac River, and the Flat Rock is about a half a block from my house," he said.

Associates in Indiana say the governor's race fits him best, and would position him for a potential future shot at the White House. James Garfield, 130 years ago, was the only man ever elected president straight from a House seat.

"Mike once told me that it's sometimes better to shoot free throws than take half-court shots. I think that logic applies to him here, as well," said Luke Messer, a former Indiana GOP chairman.

The current Indiana governor, Republican Mitch Daniels, is term-limited in 2012 and said to be eyeing a presidential campaign himself.

Mr. Pence has long been considered a potential replacement, and his path to the governor's office has only grown easier after Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman, a Republican, and Sen. Evan Bayh (D., Ind.) announced earlier this month that they would not run for the job.

Mr. Pence had already crisscrossed Indiana this year in support of local Republicans, contributing over $84,000 to their campaigns and attending 30 events for state legislative candidates.

Recently, as many House members flew back into Washington for the last days of the congressional session, Mr. Pence was still back home, filling in as a Salvation Army bell-ringer outside the Hobby Lobby in Anderson, Ind.

"It was good for my soul," he said.

Write to Neil King Jr. at [email protected]

 

[johnrocks]

Way too neo connish for me, I don't even know how one can call him a fiscal conservative with his foreign policy views and his lips are securely wrapped around Israel's butt cheeks so;for me; it's a big no.

 

[specsaregood]

Mike Pence is a military and fiscal hawk

Oxymoron alert!

 

[fisharmor]

Mike Pence is a military and fiscal hawk who frequently plugs his Christian credentials.

Double oxymoron alert!

 

[sailingaway]

The WTF?

 

[specsaregood]

Double oxymoron alert!

Good catch.
Perhaps we should just simplify it to: *moron alert.

 

[ItsTime]

Clearly Pence has no idea what a fiscal Conservative is or what a Christian is for that matter. And the media is feeding the public more bullsh1t to eat.

 

[Sola_Fide]

Ughhh...

Mike "gold standard" Pence is everywhere in the MSM now.

I'm telling you guys, the Christian-leaning social-con Tea Partiers are eating this guy up...we need to wage an intellectual war against his imperialism sooner rather than later...

 

[TheDriver]

...we need to wage an intellectual war against his imperialism sooner rather than later...

This is politics, we need some dirt!

 

[cindy25]

the last time the media created a presidential candidate was Wilkie in 1940, also to force a hawk vs hawk battle with FDR. heads they win, tails they win.
the parallels are scary.

 

[Sola_Fide]

This is politics, we need some dirt!

Good point.

 

[cindy25]

no, because they would just choose another neo-con

Ron Paul has to be known as the anti-war, anti-foreign aid candidate.

 

[Romulus]

This is the Obama for Repubs and Teaocons.

Pure deception and bullshit.

 

[emazur]

He supports the forced taxation and redistribution of American wealth to Isreal, a socialist country.

That line is what we need to use against these goddamn neocons

 

[Brett85]

we need to wage an intellectual war against his imperialism sooner rather than later...

Why? So that Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney can win the GOP nomination instead?

 

[AxisMundi]

If Pence wins the Indiana gubernatorial race, I will feel extremely sorry for Indiana, which will have to labor under voter remorse until the next election, and hope that the next gov can fix all of Pence's mistakes.

The guy is a simple hypocrite. Smaller government, yet endorses an amendment to the US Constitution removing Civil Rights from gays and even removing the abortion question from the state level. He also supports such counter-productive, ineffective and revenue wasting concerns such as the Great Wall of America along our southern border.

He also hasn't gotten the memo either, Evangelicals are not a major voting block, and they are shrinking, not growing, and do not deserve to be catered to.

This article simply serves to provide an example of why I do not consider the WSJ, and especially the author Neil King Jr., to be a legitimate sources for political news.

 

[Fredom101]

Of course this is just more proof that elections are completely controlled, and they will float Pense for a while and see if the MSM can propagandize him into a star candidate, just like they did with Rudy G and Fred Thompson. If it's clear that Pense isn't working out they will switch to some other neocon willing to tow the party line, even Newt will do, and of course they still have their man Obama more than willing to carry out their agenda if all of these guys turn into duds. It's all fixed, politics sucks.

 

[AxisMundi]

http://www.ontheissues.org/in/mike_pence.htm

A scary, scary hypocrite.

 

[ctiger2]

Pence describes himself as "a Christian₁ , a conservative and a Republican, in that order." He has stated his support of Israel and its right to attack facilities in Iran to prevent them from developing nuclear weapons, has defended the actions of Israel in its use of deadly force in enforcing the blockade of Gaza and has referred to Israel as "America's most cherished ally."

₁Mike Pence is a Evangelical Christian Zionist of the highest magnitude.

 

[Brett85]

The guy is a simple hypocrite. Smaller government, yet endorses an amendment to the US Constitution removing Civil Rights from gays and even removing the abortion question from the state level. He also supports such counter-productive, ineffective and revenue wasting concerns such as the Great Wall of America along our southern border.

A Constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage wouldn't increase the size of government in any way. It would simply prohibit the government from becoming more involved in marriage then it is now. And like Ron Paul has said, "groups" don't have civil rights. It's only individuals that have rights. The gay lobby is one of the biggest special interest groups in Washington D.C, and yet people here don't seem to have much of problem with that special interest group dictating policy in Washington. Also, Ron Paul voted for the fence along the U.S. Mexico border. Does the fact that Ron Paul doesn't support open borders make him a "statist?"