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Daniels Working To Make Conservatism Credible Again

Last updated on Thursday, June 4, 2009

(UNDATED) - Governor Daniels says republicans need to show voters how GOP platform planks will affect them if they hope to regain power nationally.

Daniels was part of a Hudson Institute Panel in Washington on "making conservatism credible again."

He says step one is to remember voters don't care about liberal versus conservative, but about results.

He points to the major moves highway package he financed by leasing the Indiana Toll Road.

Daniels says republicans should direct their message "almost entirely" to young people, trusting that older voters will hear it too.

Not only does the party need to win over the youngest voting bloc, he says it's a way to show the party is focused on the future.

Daniels predicts "terrifying deficits" produced by the Obama administration's policies represent a serious threat to that generation and a political opening for republicans.

But he says the GOP will first need to persuade voters it's learned its lesson from its own overspending in the 12 years it controlled congress, including six years with a republican White House as well.

Daniels says Indiana democrats are an object lesson in what republicans need to avoid, calling the party "backward-looking" and "bereft of ideas" while republicans have sought to be the "party of purpose," with a major new initiative always on the table.

Daniels is a former CEO of the Hudson Institute, which was headquartered in Indianapolis for 20 years before moving to Washington in 2004.

Joining Daniels on the panel were Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, National Review Editor Rich Lowry and New Atlantis Journal Editor Yuval Levin.

Daniels again disavowed any interest in running for president, this time without being asked.

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