Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels had a warning for Mitt Romney on Sunday: Don't just run against President Obama.
"The American people, I think, will rightly demand to know something more than [that Romney is] not President Obama," he said on Fox News Sunday.
Daniels echoed advice given to Romney by Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker after winning his recall election last week, a state in which Daniels said that Romney's fate remains unclear. To win, Romney will have to offer a "constructive message," one that perhaps even co-opts the currency that brought Obama to a win in 2008: hope.
"It's not even clear that Governor Romney will be that strong in Wisconsin. So he better have an affirmative constructive message and one of hope, and I think that he will and that's why I think, ultimately, he'll prevail," he said.
Daniels defended his own anti-union views and argued that the recall election, seen by many as an affirmation of Walker's positions against public-sector union bargaining rights, was a "turning point" for public-sector unions.
“I think, really, government works better without them. I really do,” Daniels said.
And Daniels pounced on Obama's crippling gaffe on Friday, when he said that the private sector was "doing fine." Though Obama walked the statement back, Republicans have used it as an example of Obama's greater misunderstanding of how to improve the economy.
"It's just sadly symptomatic of the incredible blind spot that he has. He does not understand where wealth and jobs come from. It comes from a successful private sector or not at all," Daniels said.
See all NJ’s Sunday show coverage | Get Sunday show coverage in your inbox