I'm sure we'll have much more about the State of the Union address later today—short version, phenomenal speech with an amazing closing, but Democrats are right to be concerned about the sop in the middle to drilling offshore and on public land—but right now I'm enjoying the Republican adoration for Mitch Daniels's lackluster response to the SotU. Daniels, who, I would like to remind you, was George W. Bush's budget director, is still being bandied about as the Great Republican Hope for the primaries. And apparently, tonight's speech only added fuel to that fire. Here are two posts from National Review's Corner blog in their entirety. In a post titled "What Might Have Been," Mona Charen writes:

Jefferson “trembled for” our country when he reflected that “God is just.” We must do the same when confronted with the contrasting speeches tonight of Barack Obama and Mitch Daniels. That our best leaders, such as Mitch Daniels, who tonight delivered the finest response to a State of the Union ever, have chosen not to serve, leaves the country to the second-raters. And if we are led by second rate people, we will become a second rate country.

And in a post titled "Meanwhile, on Tattooine," Daniel Foster is jumping on the draft Mitch bandwagon:

I’m currently uploading a “Help us Mitch Daniels, you’re our only hope” holo-message on to an R2 unit.

I guess when you're trying to choose between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney even Daniels, that naked mole rat in a suit with explicit ties to the Bush administration and absolutely no charisma, starts to look like a great candidate. See what lowering expectations does for you?