I spoke to a number of political types in Washington on Saturday night, and there was a near consensus that Mitch Daniels would run for president. (I thought that, too.) The major question was how candidate Daniels would present and explain the episode in the 1990s in which his wife Cheri, mother of their four young daughters, left him, married another man, and later returned to Daniels. But most people thought the issue could be successfully handled, possibly with a holding-hands “60 Minutes” interview in which Mitch and Cheri Daniels explained what happened, showed their love for one another, and said the issue had nothing to do with how he would perform as president.

But even as the political types were discussing a Daniels candidacy, Daniels himself was finishing up a statement in which he announced he would not run.  And the only reason he specifically stated for his decision was that his wife and daughters did not want him to be a candidate. “What could have been a complicated decision was in the end very simple,” Daniels said in a statement to the Indianapolis Star.  “On matters affecting us all, our family constitution gives a veto to the women’s caucus, and there is no override provision. Simply put, I find myself caught between two duties. I love my country; I love my family more.”