In a humble 164-word email to supporters early Sunday morning, Indiana's Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels said he would not pursue his party's nomination for 2012.

His decision came as a shock to many mainstream Republicans, who knew of the objections of his wife Cherie to the personal rigors and media scrutinty of a national campaign.

But they thought those concerns had been overcome in recent days of quiet lobbying.

Not so.

Here's the full Daniels message text, that will further roil the GOP field:

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels non-candidacy message to supporters

I hope this reaches you before the public news does. If so, please respect my confidence for the short time until I can make it known to all.

The counsel and encouragement I received from important citizens like you caused me to think very deeply about becoming a national candidate. 

In the end, I was able to resolve every competing consideration but one, but that, the interests and wishes of my family, is the most important consideration of all. If I have disappointed you, I will always be sorry. 

If you feel that this was a non-courageous or unpatriotic decision, I understand and will not attempt to persuade you otherwise. I only hope that you will accept my sincerity in the judgment I reached.

Many thanks for your help and input during this period of reflection.  Please stay in touch if you see ways in which an obscure Midwestern governor might make a constructive contribution to the rebuilding of our economy and our Republic.    #### 

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ABC's "This Week" with Christiane Amanpour: King Abdullah II, Jake Tapper, George Will, Jonathan Karl, Matthew Dowd and Donna Brazile.

Bloomberg's "Political Capital" with Al Hunt: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

CBS' "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer: Newt Gingrich.

CNN Fareed Zakaria "GPS": Amr Moussa, Mohamed ElBaradei, Waleed Rashed, Ragia Omran, Noor Aman Nour and Sarah Abdelrahman.

CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley: Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill), Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), Dick Armey, Ron Klain, Stephen Hadley, Israeli Amb. Michael Oren and Jane Harman.

Fox News Channel "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Herman Cain, with Evan Bayh, Liz Cheney, Paul Gigot and Juan Williams.

NBC's "Meet the Press" with David Gregory: House Budget Committee Chairman Paul D. Ryan (R-WI).

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters (Cain).

For those worried about the 400 million Chinese students studying math and science around the clock to somehow surpass lazy American kids in failing schools, here's some good news.

Our colleague Brady MacDonald brings the uplifting word that authorities in China have officially, knowingly and wittingly allowed the importation of Hello Kitty, a feline-based cult of souvenirs and other merchandise.

Hello Kitty was first spotted by public health officials in Japan in 1974. In only two years it somehow crossed the immense Pacific Ocean to infect the minds of little girls across North America.

Since then, the annoying Hello Kitty virus has spread into countless products such as computers and toasters that burn the Hello Kitty kitty into each slice of bread.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not even tried to control the epidemic of stupidity caused by the darling fictional cat with the perfect jaunty bow; they learned their lesson trying to stamp out Steamboat Willy.

Now, Brady tells us, the iconic kitty has spread into mainland China to accomplish the total domination that even the Imperial Japanese Army could not in the 1930s.

Construction starts in July on a 150-acre, $215-million theme park in Zhejiang province. An estimated 1 million volunteers a year will expose themselves to the Hello Kitty plague starting in 2014. That's a full year before Shanghai Disneyland is scheduled to open.

Over time, those Hello Kitty girls will grow into young women and have their own little girls to share the Hello Kitty paraphernalia with. Eventually, a growing majority of the proletariat's female minds will be infected with the commercialized cat and the rest of the world can resume its normal naptimes.

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-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Harmonyland in Japan

Hi, I’m United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison from Texas.

With energy prices soaring nationwide, many American families are struggling to put gas in their cars and trucks. We are seeing the price of food and other goods rise. An overwhelming majority of Americans say gas prices are causing financial hardship for their families. And more than half say they have had to make major changes to their budgets to compensate.

Unfortunately, rather than work to increase domestic energy production and help bring down gas prices, the Obama administration is seeking to impose more regulations and taxes on oil and gas companies. This is placing our own valuable resources out of reach and stifling job creation -– their proposals will actually increase pain at the pump. 

Earlier this week, Republicans put a modest bill to increase production on the floor, and Democrats couldn’t even support that with gas hovering around $4 a gallon!

Republicans have consistently called for greater access to our domestic sources of energy to spur good American jobs, and to prepare for circumstances we can’t control, like....

End of the World May 21? May 21 Judgment Day? The Rapture? Doomsday?

Whatever you call it. Likely very few people believe the world is really going to end Saturday (Pacific time). It simply can't. We just mailed the mortgage check. Planted a tree. Made a college housing deposit.

And what apocalypse arranger would dare interfere with the Real Good Talker's weekend golf game?

Obama has so much yet undone. He's not quite finished demolishing America's longstanding relationship with Israel. There are numerous taxes yet unraised. Several billion dollars left to spend. Still a few Harvard alums who don't work for the federal government.

And think of all those speeches Obama's still got left in him: "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Please be seated. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." Oratorical skills like that don't come along just every milennium.

Looking at the grim week Newt Gingrich just had, however, we are inclined to be careful about dismissing the possibility of earthly life winding down this weekend.

Not to mention Air Force One's missed landing in Hartford. That colossal planet-sized storm currently enveloping Saturn. Forecasters' prediction of 10 behemoth hurricanes this year. The Lakers' playoff plop. Saturday's Iceland volcano eruption.

Maybe Rev. Huckabee knew something about this weekend when he announced against a presidential run last weekend.

You'll notice too, that just to be on the safe side, Tim Pawlenty scheduled his presidential campaign announcement for Monday -- as you'd expect from a stingy Republican.

That way if everything does end here in the next few hours, he won't have to pay for all the signs, risers and audio equipment, which will be vaporized along with the NFL season, which is dying anyway.

Doomsday will also leave some important questions unanswered:

Would Sarah Palin have really tried to run this time? What new way can Joe Biden screw up verbally? What is Steadman's commitment problem anyway? Do frequent flyer miles carry over to the hereafter? Do they have Daylight Time there or is Hell like Arizona -- because I already changed my watch?

Who gets the last Tweet? Will Facebook add another Relationship choice: Called Up? (Sent Down?)

What were the creative guys thinking (or smoking) when they settled on selling that erectile dysfunction drug with a man and a woman in separate bathtubs on the front lawn? (And what do you suppose future archaeologists will think about 21st century human sacrifices when they dig up that petrified scene?)

Of course, everyone being summoned somewhere wouldn't be all bad:

A permanent recess for those congressional clowns. Bedbugs and Bill Maher would probably survive somehow. But at least no more Charlie Sheen and Joy Behar. Traffic might be more manageable, in a Mad Max kind of way. And, finally, a permanent end to venti price hikes at Starbucks.

See you Monday. Maybe.

(UPDATE: Saturday 6:02 p.m. Pacific: Well, so far so good. We're still here and no reported probl.....

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Pete Souza / White House

It's now official, the only body with a higher dropout rate than the Los Angeles Unified School District is the 2012 Republican presidential field.

Just this weekend we learned that two first-tier GOP contenders decided to take a pass on making a run at the White House. One of them is a hokey entertainer who hosts a boring television show featuring washed-up celebrities –- and the other is Donald Trump.

Polls consistently showed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and multimillionaire businessman Trump at the top of the GOP heap. Huckabee's support, specifically among Southerners and Evangelical Christians, was real...while any vote for Donald Trump was a vote for 'none of the above' – if 'none of the above' had clownish hair and Tourette's syndrome.

Despite what many political observers may think, the departure of Huck and Trump is a good thing for the Republican Party. It gives the GOP a chance to hit the reset button.

Let's face it, to say the GOP field is 'problematic' is the understatement of the year -– this....

Thanks to a radical shift in thinking among independents and Democrats during the past year, for the first time in Gallup Poll tracking a clear majority of Americans now approves of gay marriage.

A new Gallup Poll released this morning finds that this month 53% of Americans say same-sex marriage should be recognized in law as equally valid with traditional male-female marriages.

The spurt in support of 9% in the past 12 months was the largest registered since Gallup first tracked the topic in 1996. Back then, only 27% supported same-sex marriage and two-thirds opposed.

Support for same-sex marriages had hovered in the low 40's since about 2004, until the latest figures, showing 59% of independents and 69% of Democrats now support the idea, while 28% of Republicans do. The GOP figure was unchanged from 2010.

The new statistics also show a predictable generational cleavage, with support for gay marriage highest among the youngest (70% among those 18 to 34), declining to 53% among those 35 to 54 years old and weakest among those over 55 (39%) -- although even that segment's support increased six points in the past 12 months. 

Support for gay marriage is higher among Catholics than Protestants, among the unmarried and among those who attend church less frequently.

Gallup was unable to determine what role, if any, last year's repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy had on the substantial shift in marriage opinion. A majority of Americans (now two-thirds) has supported that change since 2005.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times (Jade and Amber Fox wait to apply for a marriage license in Beverly Hills, 2010).

Whether on the campaign trail or in the White House, President Barack Obama has not been known for his punctuality.

Today's "major speech" on Middle East and North Africa foreign policy was majorly late, more than a half-hour so. Which may not seem long in the flow of history.  But try telling that to TV hosts and viewers around the world waiting for the big guy to step to his microphone. (Photos of the international TV play are right here.)

The address, held in the sumptuous Benjamin Franklin Room at the State Department in Washington, was originally announced for 11:40 a.m., but it was 12:09 p.m. before Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stepped to the podium, and five more minutes after that before the president appeared. Obama was also nearly an hour late for the announced time of what became his Osama bin Laden is dead speech May 1.

Delays like this cause one of the most feared things in live broadcasting -- dead air. Preventing ...

Full text of President Obama's latest Middle East speech is available here.

Now, for some reactions:

Office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

Prime Minister Netanyahu expects to hear a reaffirmation from President Obama of U.S. commitments made to Israel in 2004, which were overwhelmingly supported by both Houses of Congress.

Among other things, those commitments relate to Israel not having to withdraw to the 1967 lines which are both indefensible and which would leave major Israeli population centers in Judea and Samaria beyond those lines.

Those commitments also ensure Israel’s well-being as a Jewish state by making clear that Palestinian refugees will settle in a future Palestinian state rather than in Israel. Without a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem outside the borders of Israel, no territorial concession will bring peace.

Simon Wiesenthal Center, Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper:

We welcome the president's recognition of Israel's security needs and that Hamas cannot be a partner in the peace process, but a call to a return to 1967 borders as the basis for negotiations, even with "land swaps," is a non-starter, when at least half of the Palestinian rulers are committed to Israel's destruction. The road to peace has been clear for a long time -- direct negotiations between parties who recognize each other's legitimacy.

Republican former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney:

President Obama has thrown Israel under the bus. He has disrespected Israel and undermined its ability to negotiate peace. He has also violated a first principle of American foreign policy, which is to stand firm by our friends.

George Will:

Obama should have said nothing about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, his prior statements (about Israel housing construction, and a deadline for a peace settlement) having made matters worse. Obama's idea -- Israel's, too -- is "two states for two people." Now, there is nothing more to be said until a Palestinian leader also says that.

Edward Walker of Hamilton College and former ambassador to Israel and Egypt for President Clinton:

The president's speech on the Middle East was clear about where he wants to go and not so clear on how to get there.

Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio of the Foreign Relations Committee:

I’m pleased the president used his unique platform to address America and the Middle East during this critical moment in history.  We need to back up our words with actions and policies. Our actions should leave no doubt that America is on the side of those who strive for freedom....

Unfortunately, the president’s reference to Israel’s 1967 borders marks a step back in the peace process, as the U.S. must not pre-determine the outcome of direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Our focus should be in encouraging direct and meaningful negotiations between the sides, and to continue playing an important role as a security guarantor in the region.

Republican former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty:

President Obama’s insistence on a return to the 1967 borders is a mistaken and very dangerous demand. The city of Jerusalem must never be re-divided.

To send a signal to the Palestinians that America will increase its demands on our ally Israel, on the heels of the Palestinian Authority’s agreement with the Hamas terrorist organization, is a disaster waiting to happen.  At this time of upheaval in the Middle East, it's never been more important for America to stand strong for Israel and for a united Jerusalem.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:

President Obama was very clear. And what we want is to continue to support the voices of democracy. Those who are standing against the brutality.  But we're also well aware every situation is different. 

And in this one, (Syrian President Bashar Al) Assad has said a lot of things that you didn't hear from other leaders in the region, about the kind of changes he would like to see. That may all be out the window, or he may have one last chance.

Republican Jewish Coalition:

....It is, in fact, President Obama’s insistence on a settlement freeze as a pre-condition to negotiations, more than anything else, that doomed his administration’s peace-making efforts. That stand emboldened Palestinian extremists, damaged the PA’s ability to negotiate, and forced Israelis to question the sincerity of the administration’s friendship.

With that immediate history in mind, we are concerned that when President Obama speaks of “the 1967 borders,” he means borders for Israel that are much less secure and defensible and that put Israel at risk.

Leave your own reaction to the president's remarks in our Comments section below.

More reactions will be added here as they become available.

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you very much.  Thank you.  Please, have a seat.  Thank you very much.  I want to begin by thanking Hillary Clinton, who has traveled so much these last six months that she is approaching a new landmark -- one million frequent flyer miles.  (Laughter.)  I count on Hillary every single day, and I believe that she will go down as one of the finest Secretaries of State in our nation’s history.

The State Department is a fitting venue to mark a new chapter in American diplomacy.  For six months, we have witnessed an extraordinary change taking place in the Middle East and North Africa.  Square by square, town by town, country by country, the people have risen up to demand their basic human rights.  Two leaders have stepped aside.  More may follow.  And though these countries may be a great distance from our shores, we know that our own future is bound to this region by the forces of economics and security, by history and by faith.
 
Today, I want to talk about this change -- the forces that are driving it and how we can respond in a way that advances our values and strengthens our security.

Now, already, we’ve done much to shift our foreign policy following a decade defined by....

WARNING: This story contains references to the Obama administration's repetitious and meaningless diplomatic warnings that may be disturbing to some.

Every now and then the Obama administration likes to warn somebody about something. (Scroll to bottom for partial list.) It looks like real action -- even tough -- and sounds pretty good for a news cycle or two. However, like calling for immigration reform or more college education, it doesn't really accomplish anything.

Wednesday, the Obama administration tried to get really, really tough on Syria for repressing democracy demonstrators, reportedly killing upwards of 1,000 so far. This White House began warning Syria and its president with the unsuccessful moustache back when the reported victim count was in the dozens.

But Wednesday the American administration seemed to get serious. It slapped....

Pretty busy speaking day for President Obama in the Northeast.

Nineteen minutes for the graduating cadets of the Coast Guard Academy, which we published here. Now, 30 minutes at a political fundraiser (see full text below). His third speech of the day came at a private residence and the 130 attendees only got 16 minutes for their $35,800.

Obama aides now are trying to scale back initial 2012 campaign projections of a billion-dollar haul and a boffo first quarter's report come July 1. So, maybe because of the economy or something else, the take must be a little off in the first month of the president's 19-month campaign, down from 21 months when he was lesser known.

These remarks are fairly typical of his fundraising routine now, except for the apparently joking boast about his 2004 Boston speech at the Democratic National Convention. It didn't do the two Johns (Kerry and Edwards) any good in that election.

Also Obama has dropped the Osama bin Laden is dead references that raised eyebrows at two Texas funders.

But those remarks launched Obama's Democratic Party reputation as the Real Good Talker. He....