On Wednesday night, Larry Kudlow asked Mitch Daniels about his budget projections for the Iraq war -- something that Daniels has taken some heat for, as of late (unjustifiably so... see here for more).
Video here:
KUDLOW: Your liberal critics blame you for underestimating the cost of the Iraq war. Do you have a thought on that?
DANIELS: No, I have facts.... the record is perfectly clear that we were asked at OMB to cost the first six months, and our estimate actually was on the high side; not the low side, and we weren't war-fighters.
So the first question was "Okay, what kind of war are you gonna fight" and "how long are you gonna be there?" And it's all over the record that the estimate was to defeat the Iraqi army and to be there six months, at which time -- it was believed then -- we'd already be starting to withdraw.
Then after 15 minutes of substantive, wonky stuff, Kudlow makes it fun, asking the big question, and Daniels' answer kind of sounds like a campaign speech...
KUDLOW: So... you gonna run for President? Is the door open or are you slamming it shut?
DANIELS: I'm not planning to run for President, and I don't expect to run, and I really don't want to run.
I've got some views about -- and we've touched on some of the most important stuff -- I've got some views about what we need to do as a country. We're facing some issues that, genuinely, I think are of survival level.
And I've got some views about how are party can presents itself in, I think, a more positive, constructive way. I would like to see our party campaign -- from now on -- to govern and not simply to win elections, because my presupposition is that if we don't get our debt under control, if we don't take terror and the weapons of mass destruction area much more seriously, if we don't recognize the damage we're doing by constantly buying oil from the wrong people at the wrong price, our American experiment's in some real jeopardy.
So I'd like to offer a few thoughts about that, but I'm trying to recruit somebody else to run for President.
[Hat tip: a reader]
