Daniel Larison thinks its odd that so much of the right is attacking Mitch Daniels:
Daniels is a solid social conservative (as one would expect of most reasonably successful Republican politicians in Indiana), but social conservative activists seem intent on ignoring this important detail. That is their mistake. They can be saddled with another flattering panderer who will ignore them once he is in office, they can rally around a social conservative who also offers a credible governing agenda, or they can indulge in emotionally satisfying identity politics that will take them nowhere.
I understand that social conservatives want to make sure that their issues are not ignored, but it is their own reliable support for a party that hardly ever delivers for them that has made them as easy to ignore as they have been. Throughout the entire Bush debacle, social conservatives largely remained supportive of the administration and the GOP when millions of people were running away from them. That showed that there was nothing that Republicans could ever do (or fail to do) that would alienate them. Because their support is so easily won and retained, social conservatives have been contributors to their own marginalization.