Mitch the Knife

Talk to too many people about Daniels and you start to wonder if you’ve been lied to all your life about how many hours there are in a day. Governor Daniels writes his own speeches and designs his own campaign ads. Described as in phenomenal shape, he is an avid runner and golfer, as well as a sports fan. He seems to stay in touch with just about everyone he meets, from old colleagues at Eli Lilly and the Hudson Institute, to Bush administration officials, to people he met on the road — and many of them will tell you just how surprisingly easy it is to get on his schedule. He’s also known as a policy wonk, who can wrap his head around an issue with surprising speed and ease.

Neil Pickett, who worked with Daniels at the Hudson Institute, of which Daniels was president and CEO from 1987 to 1990, and later served as senior policy director during Daniels’ first term has governor, called Daniels extremely intelligent, the first quality most people mention when speaking about the governor.

“I worked for Herman Kahn — he’s a futurist who founded the Hudson institute. He’s generally thought of as one of the smartest people ever in the world,” Pickett said. “Nobody in my mind equals Herman Kahn. But Mitch Daniels is pretty darn close.”

“He is both quantitatively, not just literate but expert, and one of the most articulate and effective communicators, especially in writing, that I’ve ever seen,” Pickett continued.