INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who last year said he had no interest in running for president, now says he will keep the door open to a possible 2012 presidential run.
The Republican told The Washington Post over the weekend that he has spoken with former president George W. Bush and others in recent months and agreed to keep an open mind about a White House bid.
"Just to get them off my back, I agreed to a number of people that I will now stay open to the idea," Daniels told the Post.
But the two-term governor told The Journal-Gazette of Fort Wayne on Monday that his focus will be on Indiana for the next 18 months. He said he'd listen to the idea of running for president at that time if Republicans aren't happy with their field, but that it likely would be too late to launch a bid.
"I don't expect to ever make that decision," he told the Fort Wayne paper. "... I'll tell you honestly: My bathroom mirror has never had a president of the United States in it, ever."
Daniels' spokeswoman Jane Jankowski declined to comment Monday on Daniels' remarks.
The governor, who made his comments while in Washington for the winter meeting of the National Governors Association, said he hopes to help reshape the Republican Party's approach to national problems. He also said he's been trying to recruit potential GOP presidential contenders for 2012.
"I'm still out trying to recruit other people. I talked to three folks that I won't name, and they all turned me down," Daniels told The Journal-Gazette.
He repeated that his focus is on Indiana, where he hopes to have a GOP-friendly Legislature come November.
Daniels, who was Bush's budget director and worked as Ronald Reagan's political director, won a landslide re-election victory in 2008 even as President Barack Obama carried Indiana in the presidential race.
Daniels said last summer that he would not subject his family to the "savagery" and scrutiny of a national campaign. In an interview with the Post in his Statehouse office two months ago, he dismissed speculation he might be a presidential candidate.
Several Republicans who hope to emerge as the 2012 nominee already have begun establishing their campaigns. Waiting until the Legislature adjourns in mid-2011 would put Daniels far behind them. He declined an invitation to make the keynote speech last week at a convention of conservative political activists who met in Washington.
"You will not find me doing any of the things that candidates do" this year, he told the Fort Wayne paper. "I have my hands full trying to do justice to this job."
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