Mike Pence has been mentioned...

...as a possible candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2012. Recently, at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, Pence came in first in a straw poll of the delegates:

"I am a Christian, a Conservative and a Republican -- in that order," Pence promised the cheering crowd.

But one former Reagan official, Bruce Bartlett, is less than impressed with the Indiana Congressman:

Yesterday Rep. Mike Pence ... gave an important speech to the Detroit Economic Club. We know it was important because Pence's staff told everyone it was and because it was given at a venue where many important economic speeches by the likes of John F. Kennedy have been given. So my expectations were pretty high when I sat down to read it. Here, I thought, I will finally find a serious Republican analysis of our economic problems and serious proposals for fixing them.

Unfortunately, Pence's speech was nothing of the kind. It was a hackneyed rehash of every simplistic idea ever floated on Larry Kudlow's TV show, which appears to be the only source of information Pence has on the economy. I don't know how else to explain his obsession with inflation, a strong dollar, Fed bashing, tax cuts and the gold standard. Pence could have given the same identical speech in 1980 and barely needed to change a word. In the Pence/Kudlow world it is always 1980--stagflation is the primary problem and tight money and tax cuts are the cures.
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In conclusion, Mike Pence isn't ready for prime time. His proposals show no hint of understanding the true nature of our economic problems or any evidence that he has thought more than five minutes on what to do about them. The sad thing is that Pence at least spent five minutes; most other Republicans don't appear to have spent even that much. They just have interns watch Kudlow's show and write down whatever slogan was highlighted and then repeat it. At a minimum, this is a really stupid way for a major political party to make policy.