opinion

Tully: Mike Pence is out of his league as governor

Recent months have made one thing clear: You can put those Mike Pence for President campaign buttons, if there were any, back in the drawer.

Something else, meantime, is becoming more obvious with each new mistake: Pence was never meant to be a governor. A partisan and dysfunctional Congress that lives on bright line divisions was his home for 12 years, and that's where he belongs — in a place where a person can rise high by talking well and digging in and not really doing much. A place where, for the most part, you are not held accountable for results.

Being a governor is different. It's about being a leader who is forced every day to think pragmatically, who knows that doing no harm is high on the list of requirements, and who understands that the job is at its core about making sure your state's people have a better chance of earning a decent living or getting a great education tomorrow than they do today.

In recent days, Fortune magazine listed former Gov. Mitch Daniels among "the world's 50 greatest leaders." At the same time, Pence, the man who followed Daniels into office, has once again been exposed as a stunningly ineffective leader.

When you have to "clarify" a horribly damaging piece of legislation that you raced to sign, when you dodge a question on national TV about whether discrimination is legal in your state, when you deal your state a crushing economic blow, when you seem incapable of understanding the role you have played in creating this mess — well, that makes clear that you are not in the right job.

And to be clear, this is not just about the "religious freedom" bill fiasco, as bad as it is and as poorly as Pence has performed during the controversy. Let's consider the other malpractice in the governor's office in recent months.

In October, after weeks of work by members within his own administration, Pence quietly killed a grant application that was almost guaranteed to bring Indiana tens of millions of federal dollars for preschool programs. The money would have given thousands of low-income families and at-risk children access to high-quality, life-changing early learning programs.

The governor, caught flat-footed when the story broke, tied his decision to concerns about "strings" attached to the federal money. But time and again he could not offer one specific requirement or string that troubled him. He could not explain why he spiked an application that was little different than one he'd approved a year earlier and that experts on programs for children within his own administration supported.

A few months later, Pence became a national punchline when word leaked that he was attempting to create his own government-run news service. While it has become abundantly clear why he needs such a propaganda machine, the taxpayer-funded effort enraged both the left and the right and was soon spiked.

But to many, that public relations disaster was about more than a bad idea. The real damage, more than one Republican in political circles has told me, was Pence's defense: That he didn't know what staffers housed in his own office had been doing. He not only passed the buck, he cemented an image of an out-to-lunch governor who, perhaps because he was dreaming too many presidential dreams, had little control over his own administration.

And now comes the "religious freedom" bill, which has done damage to Indiana that sadly will linger for years. Pity those corporate leaders trying to lure top talent to Indiana. Or city leaders now facing another obstacle in their way as they bid for hotly contested conventions. Or parents who want their children to stay close by after graduation. Or people who just want to be proud of their state.

Diminishing this as a "perception" problem, as Pence did repeatedly during a news conference Tuesday, was a new example of leadership negligence. And it crystallized a thought that I've had for some time: He is simply not suited to be an executive branch leader. It is not his skill set. He is a talker, not a leader.

Pence is a thoughtful guy in many ways, but as a politician he is above all an ideologue, one whose actions and distractions have made clear that he doesn't truly understand what it takes to take on the state's massive challenges. He thrived while representing a gerrymandered congressional district, one where he could safely walk an ideological line and live largely in a partisan bubble. He has failed to understand that a governor's job is to represent a much more diverse state.

He said some of the right things Tuesday, such as "I abhor discrimination." Still, some of his top supporters, including one who was among a select few at a private signing ceremony for the "religious freedom" bill, have made clear the goal was to allow businesses to turn away gay customers.

It's a shame, because Pence has at times as governor worked to tone down divisions between the parties. For the most part, he hasn't engaged in the type of rhetoric that, as a congressman, once led him to recklessly tell a friendly partisan crowd that it was time to shut down the government. His speeches as governor have been calm, but the actions have been a disaster.

To be fair, there have been glimpses of hope, moments and actions that suggested Pence was growing into his job. Such as when his team negotiated a Medicaid waiver with the Obama administration that annoyed some on the right even as it opened up health insurance options for thousands of low-income workers in Indiana. Or when he created a preschool program, a small and temporary one, over the objections of some conservatives.

But each step forward has been followed by a colossal mistake: Turning down more significant preschool investments, the state-run news debacle, and now a political crisis that has turned into the most damaging self-inflicted wound many of us have ever seen in Indiana.

And that's just since October.

Comebacks are almost always possible in politics. But for Pence time is getting short. He's had multiples opportunities over the past week to lead. Instead, he has stumbled.

The most remarkable part of this is that he was given a roadmap, designed by Daniels, making clear what Hoosiers wanted. I'm not saying everyone agreed with Daniels' policies, but his focus was at least centered almost always on the right topics. With his famed call for a "truce" on social issues, Daniels showed he understood that issues like the one now on center stage can get in the way of tackling more serious matters.

Daniels was not perfect as governor. But it's worth remembering that only 27 months ago a solid majority of Hoosiers had a sense of pride in their government and in the idea that it had been led for eight years by a big thinker. A big thinker who worried not about being Indiana's pastor but about repairing the state's economic situation.

For Indiana Republicans, it must be particularly hard to accept what has been lost in these past 27 months: The hard-earned mantle of the party of action and the party of ideas. Under Daniels, it was also a party that had made inroads with minority groups and college students.

For Indiana Republicans, that mantle is lost. It was shattered by a governor who never should have given up his seat in Congress. It was shattered by a governor who is in the wrong job, and whose mistakes have cost Indiana dearly.

You can reach me at matthew.tully@indystar.com or at Twitter.com/matthewltully.