Political Bracketology

Adept NCAA brackets can win you money in an office pool, respect among your friends or…political capital. At least, that’s the thoughts of some observers.

Last year, the candidates for U.S. Senate sniped at each other over their bracket choices. And this year, there’s no shortage of coverage on President Barack Obama’s NCAA picks. Some outlets have questioned the President’s choices (too safe–he has the number one seeds in the final four). Others have dug for political meaning (where does he rank schools from 2012 battleground states?). And other outlets have said there’s too much happening in the world for the President to bother with college basketball (we could say the same about some news outlets).

The best coverage, though, comes from the Awl, which parses Mr. Obama’s choices on politics and stats, then compares his picks to the national averages.

Live Coverage of President Obama’s Press Conference at 11:00 on WFPL

WFPL will air live coverage of President Barack Obama’s news conference this morning at 11 am. Mr. Obama is expected to discuss rising oil and gasoline prices. As the AP reports, “Fuel prices have been rising amid continued turmoil in Libya, an oil-producing country. News that police opened fire to break up a protest Thursday afternoon in Saudi Arabia also has sparked fears that the unrest could spread to that country. Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter.”

Live Coverage Of President Obama’s News Conference

WFPL will air live coverage of President Barack Obama’s news conference at 11 am on Tuesday. Mr. Obama is expected to talk about his budget proposal.

From NPR:

NPR’s Neal Conan will host the coverage. He will be joined in the studio by NPR Correspondent John Ydstie, NPR’s Diplomatic Correspondent Michele Kelemen and NPR’s White House Correspondent Ari Shapiro.

Daniels Says He Would Have Money And Support If He Ran For President

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has spent months fueling speculation that he’ll seek the Republican nomination for President in 2012. He made what may be his boldest statement this week in an interview with Politico. He told the D.C. news outlet that he would have the money and support to win the election, but his wife’s concerns may keep him out of the race.

“If I were to decide to do this, we would have an unbelievable letterhead,” Daniels predicted in a POLITICO interview Wednesday, lighting up as the hour-long conversation turned to why he could win.

“I don’t know if we’d raise the most, but for whatever reason, there are an awful lot of people standing by who I think know how to do this a lot better than I do,” he said, noting that he’s being pushed to run by an array of business types and political figures.

Daniels’s path to run is clearer now than ever, since Indiana Congressman Mike Pence decided not to run.

Revisiting Mitch Daniels

With Congressman Mike Pence out of the running for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, Republican Hoosiers’ are once again looking to Governor Mitch Daniels. In a search for my last post on Daniels, I stumbled on an article from last week that I apparently missed.

From Politico:

If pundits and columnists represented the GOP base, Mitch Daniels would be the odds-on favorite for the presidential nomination in 2012.

The Indiana governor has been showered with favorable coverage from political thinkers and analysts in recent months, most of which heaped praise on his thoughtful and principled approach to governing while celebrating his serious yet down-to-earth mien.

And here’s an update from the northwest.

Daniels led the local speculation for much of last year, but he’s kept a lower profile for the last few months as Pence took the spotlight.

Pence Will Not Run For President

After months of speculation, Republican Indiana Congressman Mike Pence says he will not to run for President. He may, however, run for Governor.

Cheney Talks About Possible Daniels 2012 Bid

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been making the media rounds again. He told CNN he’s “intrigued” by the prospect of Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels running for president in 2012. Daniels worked in the Bush White House, and Cheney says he should do for the nation what he did for Indiana. (Indiana residents: what are your thoughts on that prospect?)

Daniels is one of two Hoosiers who are considering seeking the GOP nomination. The other is Congressman Mike Pence.

Group Starts Petition To Push Pence

The “America’s President Committee” (led by former Kansas Representative Jim Ryun) has launched a web petition encouraging Indiana Congressman Mike Pence (a Republican) to run for President. Pence is expected to decide whether to run this week, but as Politico reports, he may opt to run for Governor instead. Current Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is also on the list of possible GOP Presidential candidates.

Daniels Profiled As Pence Prepares

The two Hoosiers in the pool of possible Republican Presidential candidates are in the headlines this week.

First, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is profiled in the New York Times:

Of all the Republicans talking about the deficit these days, Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana, has arguably the most credibility.

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I recently sat down with him in his office to talk about what small government might actually look like. To be clear, it would be very different from the Tea Party dream, in which taxes could be cut;Medicare, Social Security and the military could be left untouched; and the deficit would somehow vanish. Mr. Daniels is willing to acknowledge as much.

Next, Politico reports that Representative Mike Pence will give the keynote address at the Awakening Conference’s annual black-tie dinner:

The conference—which in previous years has been held at the exclusive golf resort known as The Cloisters in Sea Island, Ga.—is an invitation-only gathering of conservative pols, thinkers and activists that was originally designed to counter the Renaissance Weekend, an event they characterized as a gathering of liberal elites. Former President Bill Clinton co-chaired that gathering in the past, but it has featured guests from both sides of the aisle.

Awakening has a history in presidential politics: In early 2007, it was the forum Romney used to try to explain away the moderate social positions he adopted as Massachusetts governor before pivoting into a presidential run that officially kicked off shortly afterward.

Daniels And Barbour: Pals And Possible Competitors

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (who hasn’t had the best press lately) have long been friends. That could be a problem if they both decide to run for President.

From Politico:

Not “friends” in the political sense, the way fellow senators disingenuously refer to one another during floor debate, but pals who truly like each other, and have a long-standing, personal relationship. It’s a nontransactional friendship that’s uncommon in the rarefied air of national politics.

Barbour and Daniels first became close as 30-somethings working in the Reagan White House, where Barbour served as political director and Daniels headed up the inter-governmental affairs shop.