Posted on 05/17/2015 9:29:55 AM PDT by GIdget2004
John Kasich is “virtually certain” to jump into the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, sources close to the Ohio governor tell ABC News.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
It’s like a Cecil B. DeMille movie.
OTOH, I'm not sure that necessarily translates to a broad-based national support. He doesn't have a lot of name recognition outside of Ohio so it will likely be an uphill struggle to build a winning campaign. But from an electorate vote viewpoint, we absolutely need Ohio. If it goes into Hillary's column we're pretty much done for.
Please spare the flames on Kasich's position on the issues. I understand a lot of FReepers hate him because of his stand on some issues. I'm talking about political strategy and winning elections here, which is something we should also be focused on.
I’m not going to blame him. At the same time I won’t support him either. He seems to think he can use the tax base and fun to make the government work as a charity organization. I don’t believe government can or should play that role and I have a fundamental disagreement with it.
Well, like I said, I wasn’t commenting about agreement or disagreement with his positions. It was more a comment on the fact that Kasich tends to be successful in getting votes and winning elections, which is something that is necessary in politics if you’re going to be an effective agent for advancing political goals. My impression is that often conservatives don’t seem to grasp the notion that if you lose elections you aren’t going to have much chance to change things.
True, but if the candidate basically adopts a liberal philosophy there won’t be change anyway.
Leni
And, no, I'm not talking about compromising principles. We hold to our principles and work to convince the officeholder who agrees with us on 3 out of 4 issues to change his/her mind on the remaining ones. It may or may not work, but at least we're in the game, which we otherwise would not be. On balance, that seems to be a more productive and positive approach than taking our ball and going home.
If he were elected he would find common ground with Schumer and Pelosi 80% of the time.
My biggest problem with him is taking the federal money for state Medicaid. Congress is been reluctant to do anything serious about Obamacare. The actions and statements of Kasich seem to indicate that he tacitly approves it or would take actions to “fix” it. It needs to be gone, not sick, not defunded – repealed. It’s only one issue but it’s too big, too important, too invasive for compromise.
I believe there was the usual (and typical) Wash., DC, hanky panky "alleged", and, shortly thereafter, John Kasich, announced that he was not running for reelection. Call me skeptical, but I can't help but think that the heat was too hot in the kitchen, or put another way, the- better get going while the getting is good notion, was the order of the day. I could see the Democrat smear machine gearing up for some good old fashioned astroturfing.
Another Republican, setting the stage for his post-Gubernatorial career phase.
—TV commentator appearances
—Paid speeches
—Books
—Name recognition, lobbying, think tank membership, etc.
A highly lucrative career, politics has come to be. Both parties.
The risk is that one or two truly outstanding candidates will get lost in the total noise, confusion, and self-serving nature of it.
Unfortunately, while nobody is perfect, our candidate had better be purer than Caesar's wife, if you get my classical drift.
Leni
Probably not.
Rather than waste my time convincing him of a position he obviously holds, I’ll just support someone else for the nomination.
My point was that if by some long shot chance he is the nominee, that would be a better approach than taking your ball and going home to Hillary.
At this rate; Bush will win the nomination with 7%...
The Governor signed off on a massive transportation budget and backed getting revenue from the Ohio Turnpike to create highway, road and bridge projects all over the state putting that union's membership to work.
The union's business manager Patrick Sink summed it up this way: "Any government or entity of government that facilitates jobs for members of this local I'm going to support."
Governor Kasich said the endorsement meant a lot to him personally and is an "affirmation," stressing his blue collar background. His father was a mailman and the president of a union local.
"It's in my roots. It's in my DNA. These are the people i grew up with," he said
Kasich is all over the place on Obamacare, as long as he can be for it (from Ramesh Ponnuru column for Bloomberg)
John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio who may be mulling a presidential bid, stepped in it this week.
He appeared to say that he thought the Affordable Care Act would never be repealed -- as many Republicans hope -- because it helps too many people. He then backtracked and said that he was only talking about the expansion of Medicaid that was part of Obamacare, not Obamacare itself.
I heard him myself on Hannity yesterday bragging:
how he has personally overseen the 15% minority contractors' preference in Ohio, as if GUARANTEEING jobs to anyone benefits anybody at all...if fifteen percent of public construction jobs HAVE to go to minorities, can you imagine how expensive and shoddy those projects have to be?
And also runs around citing the Bible as his authority for blowing taxpayer dollars (Washington Times):
God, so far as anyone here knows, has issued no decrees on Obamacare, but the governor cites a divine dispatch from a higher power to make his appeal. “When you die and get to the meeting with St. Peter,” he warned, “he’s probably not going to ask you much about what you did about keeping government small, but he is going to ask you what you did for the poor.”The message to dissenters was clearly, “expand Medicaid with Obamacare help, just in case.”
The conniving little scoundrel even showed up in my state to spread his leftist poison among the weak (ibid):
Kasich is traveling the country now as an evangelist for expansion, urging other governors to follow his lead.
He pitched his tent in Montana the other day and persuaded 10 Republicans to join all 41 Democrats to rewrite the rules for the 2015 legislative session to resurrect failed bills, including the earlier rejection of expanding the unpopular expansion scheme.
Seriously I don't know how a conservative could take this little scamster seriously. He is Jeb Bush without the millions, Santorum without the sweater, Huckabee without the fat. .
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
