Faced with a presidential race that’s all tied up in Indiana, the Guv’s promoters have been chattering about a creature whose birth no one could ever have predicted: the Obama-Daniels voter.

Republicans I’ve talked to think that up to 25 percent of Obama’s supporters will swing to support Mitch Daniels in November.

But Daniels was one of McCain’s earliest supporters, right? Won’t he go to the mat to make sure Indiana turns presidential red at two minutes past six on election night? A story reported tonight by WRTV’s Rick Hightower makes it pretty clear that the Guv is in it for himself:

“He’d better win here, or I’d say his national chances aren’t good at all,” Daniels said of McCain. He went on to say that “I told them at the outset I have a full-time job, and my mind is on the problems of Indiana, that I would be happy to lend my name, but they couldn’t really count on me to spend much time on things, and they’ve held up their end of that bargain.”

Average Hoosiers might not pick up on the significance of these comments, but this says to me that Daniels has thrown McCain under the bus because his fortunes depend far more on Obama’s fate here.

The Guv’s been running a change campaign of his own, and he can’t afford to have John W. Bush and Mrs. Dick Cheney II screw it up for him.

Meanwhile, Obama will be in town next Wednesday. Perhaps Daniels will consider a joint appearance?