The passing of the Mitch Daniels political era

Perhaps it was poll after poll showing congressional approval hovering around 18 percent. Or that he never had that horde mentality; Mitch Daniels has been for the past three decades the leader of the pack. Or, perhaps, it was the Cooperstown busts of two native Hoosiers – Major League Baseball commissioners Kenesaw Mountain Landis and Ford Frick – and the fact that the job could come open next summer, that might have held sway.

When it came to a decision, Mitch Daniels determined that spending the next eight years campaigning and serving in dysfunctional Washington, D.C., with Donald Trump-inspired loony bin senators in stasis congressional gridlock was the ultimate deal breaker.