Daniels ads consistent, plays up Hoosier pride

INDIANAPOLIS -- Mitch Daniels, in television commercials he has aired since January, has been delivering consistent themes to living rooms all across Indiana.\nThe ads are polished, in a pleasant kind of way. They cast the state's economic problems in terms of comeback, not crisis, and the Republican candidate for governor as more caring than critical.\nFar from "talking down Indiana," as Democratic Gov. Joe Kernan's campaign likes to accuse Daniels of doing, the ads are primarily positive and play up Hoosier pride.\n"Ours is a great state, full of potential," Daniels said in a spot woven around the 1954 Milan "miracle" high school basketball championship. "A little business sense, a little leadership and a new team in state government, we'll be right back in the game."\nRobert Dion, a professor of American politics at the University of Evansville, says viewers in that city have seen more Daniels ads than commercials for any other political candidate this year. And they seem to be scoring points.\n"The ads for the Daniels campaign have done an admirable job so far of presenting Mitch Daniels in a very appealing way to Indiana voters," Dion said. "The ads are decidedly low-key and easygoing. They seem much less likely to cause someone to reach for the remote control."\nThe ads portray Daniels as a former businessman and top aide to two presidents (Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush), but a first-time candidate who feels compelled to turn Indiana's struggling economy around. His family comes first, one ad says, and "his old friends are still his friends."\nSeveral spots feature shots of Daniels traveling the state in his donated recreational vehicle, taking the time to meet with Hoosiers and listen to their concerns and hopes. Some have lost their jobs, but so many have "dusted themselves off" in a determination to keep going.\nAn overriding theme is change, something the ads play on without being overly harsh. He criticizes Democrats without being mean-spirited.\n"The people who have been in power now for so long aren't bad people," he says in one ad. "I know they're not hard-hearted.\n"I just think they have been in Indianapolis so long that they have lost touch with the severity of our problems," he says. "And I know they have lost sight of our potential for greatness. And I just think that it's one of those moments in our state's history that calls for a fresh start with a new crew that want to aim higher."\nDion said the ads do a remarkable job of calling attention to things that cause anxiety in the minds of Hoosiers -- like the faltering economy, for example -- without coming off as negative or harshly critical of Kernan.\n"Whoever is writing his scripts has really earned their commission on that one, because they are an excellent example of conveying a strong message without appearing overly aggressive or negative," Dion said.\nIn some ways, Dion said, the Daniels seen in the ads is a bit different from the longtime political activist and Washington insider known to most politically-aware people.\n"These ads are not necessarily untrue, but they go out of their way to downplay some of the aspects of the Daniels campaign that make it so formidable: He's got a long and impressive political background, access to big donors and support from prominent party leaders"