‘New Red Menace' - Mitch Daniels

For Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels it appeared that there were not enough metaphors in the English language to describe the failures of President Obama and his administration.

In a keynote speech that Daniels, a potential 2012 Republican White House hopeful, delivered to a room full of conservative leaders and activists in Washington on Friday night, he warned of a “financial Niagara,” complained of an “orgy of regulation,” and lamented the arrival of a “new Red menace” in the form of mounting national debt.

During the 30-minute address that closed the second day of the Conservative Political Action Convention, Daniels served up a speech that was heavy on substance and even, at times, critical of what he called the “venomous, petty, often ad hominem political discourse of the day.”

Though he’s been criticized by some on the right for comments he made last summer suggesting that social issues should take a back-seat while the country deals with its fiscal woes, he made no mention of issues like abortion, same-sex marriage or guns. What he did do, however, was envision a Republican Party that appealed to a broader electorate.

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