This is what a sane(and Nationally Electable) Republican Sounds Like

[Acebb]

Hmm. Sanity returning to the R's? Cruz falling, Super Crazy Palin endorsing Trump, and the sane, adult in the room, gaining in the 2nd Primary state?

Donald Trump continues to top the field in New Hampshire with 34% of likely Republican primary voters supporting him.
Trump is followed by Cruz (14%), Rubio (10%), Bush (10%), Paul (6%), Christie (6%), Kasich (6%), Fiorina (4%), Carson (3%),
and Huckabee (1%). All other potential candidates receive less than 1% support, and 6% say they are undecided.


====
Oh well, that was fun.

 

[SheriffJoe]

KASICH: 'I ought to be running in Democrat primary'...

 

[The Guesser]

In Search of a David to Take on Goliath

New Hampshire runner-up John Kasich is the anti-Donald Trump. So will the establishment rally to him?

Looking to topple the giant
By Emily ArrowoodFeb. 10, 2016, at 12:59 a.m.+ More

Who can stop Trump?
As expected, Donald Trump cruised to a crushing victory in New Hampshire on Tuesday night. (Who would have believed last June when Trump entered the race that we'd be yawning at his winning New Hampshire?) Trump blew away his competitors, securing well above 30 percent of the vote – more than double that of the first runner-up.
And that's where the real story of New Hampshire lies: Ohio Gov. John Kasich came from the bottom of the pack to secure a second-place finish. Will he be the savior to deliver us from Trump?
"Enormous pressure is on the establishment wing to consolidate around one candidate soon," Republican strategist Ron Bonjean says, "or else it will hand the Republication nomination over to Trump." Indeed, the Republican primary has made a fickle fashion show thus far. The establishment and donor classes have tried on different candidates, sizing up their chances of taking down Trump before casting them aside for the next contender.

[SEE: Editorial Cartoons on Donald Trump]
Even before Trump took over the race, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was supposed to be the party's heir-apparent. Leading in the earliest polls (pre-Trump, of course), he had the name and the cash to make the establishment drool. But Trump's entrance into the race flat-lined Bush's already lackluster campaign, and Jeb's been floundering ever since to regain steam, with little success. Consider that his campaign is touting his fourth-place finish in New Hampshire as a sign of great momentum. Please clap.
Then there was Ben Carson, an outsider like The Donald but more humble than braggart. Carson shot to favor in August and soared so close to Trump in the polls that the nervous front-runner publicly compared him to a child molester and mocked his self-described violent past. Amid more questions about his biography and bizarre religious and historical beliefs, Carson's near-catatonic excuses proved ineffective and his support plummeted by mid-November.
Enter Sen. Ted Cruz, who almost immediately rose to second place. A month out from the Iowa caucus, he secured endorsements from influential conservatives in the state like Rep. Steve King. Yet almost as quickly as Cruz settled in behind Trump, the Republican establishment wanted him out. It turns out thatnearly everyone who has come into contact with the senator from Texas dislikes him. With a passion.
Faced with the option of a President Trump or a President Cruz, the GOP looked ready to unfurl a "Make America Great Again" banner over the White House. Yet rather than capitalizing on this momentum, Trump busied himself picking a fight with the GOP's official mouthpiece, Fox News, skipping the last debate before the caucus. Meanwhile, Cruz zeroed in on Iowa's evangelical vote and came out of the Feb. 1 caucus with a surprise win.
[READ: Donald Trump Becomes the Biggest Iowa Loser]
Now desperate, the establishment looked to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for salvation. Rubio took the bronze in Iowa but treated it like a runaway victory, and that was good enough for the Washington establishment. He shot up in national polls and climbed to second place behind Trump in New Hampshire last week. He looked to be just the bright, energetic contender the party had been waiting on to unite its factions and take down Trump – until he famously malfunctioned at last week's GOP debate,earning nicknames like "Rubot" and "Marcobot." Rubio finished fifth in New Hampshire.
Which brings us to Ohio Gov. John Kasich. "What's clear is that Christie's suicide attack against Rubio had an impact on voters who turned to Kasich and Bush as an alternative," says Bonjean. Long overlooked by the Republican establishment, the governor is suddenly number two.
[SEE: Editorial Cartoons on the 2016 Presidential Elections]
Kasich bet the farm on New Hampshire. Barely two months ago, he was polling sixth among GOP candidates in the Granite State. He put in more appearances there than any other Republican and built up a muscular ground operation, and it paid off.
Whether or not Kasich's win is also a win for the establishment is up to the party itself. The revolving door of favored alternatives to Trump is spinning faster and faster, nurturing the chaos that has handicapped Republican opposition to Trump from the start. But if it stops with Kasich, there could be bright days ahead.
Kasich is everything Trump is not. He's experienced – serving nine terms in Congress before becoming governor; bipartisan – the twice-elected chief executive of critical swing state Ohio; thoughtful *– he's consistently touted realistic and detailed policy platforms, and even The New York Times endorsed him as "the only plausible choice for Republicans tired of the extremism and inexperience on display in this race." He'd be a formidable opponent to Democrats in the general election.
[READ: Win One for the Revolution]
If Republicans can rally around Kasich, Trump's a goner. It's a big if – Kasich didn't finish far enough ahead of Bush (who finished fourth) or Rubio to decisively clear the field. Without a concerted effort to consolidate voters around one candidate, the madness seems ripe to continue in South Carolina. My guess is that Trump will continue his winning streak in the Palmetto state next week – though pundits predict Cruz might carry the day with the evangelical vote, my read is that anti-immigrant sentiment runs so deep in the South, where voters are still miffed that Barack Obama has been president for eight years, that Trump will prevail. But still, the division would remain. But if Republicans rally around Kasich, where can Trump go from South Carolina? Not very far, if two-thirds of the GOP sided with Kasich and the rational wing of the party.
All we've heard from the Republican establishment this cycle is weeping and the gnashing of teeth over Trump's lead. And now they have a man in hand who could topple the tyrant – let's see if they truly want to.

 

[The Guesser]

John Kasich doesn’t have a stump speech. He has stump stories, and stump catchphrases, but they’re just ingredients he mixes and matches depending on his mood. He restlessly ad-libbed his way through his months-long tour of New Hampshire, too restless to recite for long. He’d start one town hall meeting with a tale about busting painkiller mills in the Ohio Valley. He’d start another with his mailman father and his coal-miner grandfather who died of black lung.
Who knew, until a few days ago, just how valuable that would be?


Three days after the debate where Chris Christie blasted Marco Rubio as an overscripted rookie, and Rubio was seemingly powerless to stop himself from repeating his memorized lines, it’s casual, off-the-cuff Kasich who’s benefitted most from Rubio’s dramatic glitch. The Ohio governor surged to second place in the New Hampshire Republican primary, behind Donald Trump and ahead of Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Rubio and Christie.
There are a lot of knocks on Kasich as a candidate—he’s rumpled, and he can be punchy to the point of crankiness—but this unscriptedness has helped him come back from adversity before. Deeply unpopular after his first year as Ohio governor, when voters overturned an anti-union law he signed, Kasich bounced back by forging personal alliances with Cleveland Democrats who were far from disposed to doing him favors. In May 2012, at the announcement of a legislative deal to pass ambitious reforms of the Cleveland schools, Kasich was photographed, misty-eyed, hugging state Sen. Nina Turner, a black Democrat known for her fiery appearances on MSNBC. To a by-the-book Republican ideologue, such a moment would have been poison. For Kasich it helped him cement a reputation as a genuine across-the-aisle leader.
In the shifting, final days in New Hampshire, when Rubio’s too-oft-repeated lines became a reminder of inexperience – and with mocking robots starting to follow Rubio around the campaign trail -- Granite State voters found a clear alternative in Kasich’s brand of unscripted confidence. He had been seeding the ground in New Hampshire for months, spending 70 days campaigning there to Rubio’s 28.
There’s an irony that the GOP’s most experienced candidate for president – 18 years in Congress, five years as governor of a major state – is also the most disarmingly unrehearsed. But in a race whose leaders are defined by their total indifference to political convention, that has emerged as a huge strength, helping Kasich decisively pass Rubio in New Hampshire’s final stretch. Kasich’s trust in his own gift of gab highlighted his knowledge from his years as governor and House budget committee chairman, without making him seem remote.
Nina Turner, who Kasich hugged, is campaigning for Bernie Sanders this year, but she thinks Kasich has a big advantage over his Republican rivals. “I consider this a disruption election cycle,” says Turner, co-chair of a state panel Kasich created on police deadly-force issues. “People want authenticity. The governor and I have had our fights, but he is authentic. He is straight, no chaser. What he says, he means.”But as the race hits the national stage, with two more primaries and then Super Tuesday, Kasich’s no-filter personality could also become his downfall. For years, before he remade himself as a sunny optimist in New Hampshire, it earned him a reputation as an arrogant jerk. His penchant for blunt talk could become a liability as the campaign heads from town halls to national stages, with every stop scrutinized. Many a presidential candidate has been hobbled by a single gaffe, a one-liner in which they were a little too authentically themselves: Mitt Romney and the 47 percent, John Kerry voting for war funding before he voted against it.
“Governor Kasich has far more experience than Senator Rubio,” Turner says. “He’s not robotic. That could be blessing or a curse! I’m sure his handlers are on edge of their seats every time. But at least you know it’s coming from the heart.”




Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/st...-2016-john-kasich-speech-213610#ixzz3zkrou1Zn

 

[The Guesser]

Kasich allies: Bush, Christie should 'look in the mirror,' re-examine campaigns

By AL WEAVER (@ALWEAVER22)

•​

2/10/16 12:01 AM


CONCORD, N.H. — Coming off a clear second place finish in New Hampshire, allies of Ohio Gov. John Kasich are calling for middling candidates to re-examine their campaigns as the race turns to South Carolina, Nevada and Super Tuesday.
On a high and fresh off Kasich's strong second place posting, two prominent backers of the Ohio governor believe former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie should "look in the mirror" and ultimately consolidate behind a single candidate to best take on Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and try to take home the GOP nomination.
"They have to decide. But I think their performance in New Hampshire shows that they really don't have traction," said former Sen. John E. Sununu, Kasich's campaign chairman in the state. "Jeb Bush did worse tonight than he did when he started — and that's after spending $30-40 million in New Hampshire."
"They've really got to decide whether they really have a path forward. I can't decide that for them," Sununu continued. "This is probably Chris Christie's best state and he didn't get out of single digits, so it's hard to imagine that there's a path forward there. Everyone understands over time fields narrow, they consolidate, and there's no question 1v1 that John Kasich would beat Donald Trump and easily win the nomination and he will win a general election because there is no candidate, no Republican stronger in a general election than John Kasich."

 

[superbeets]

Kasich allies: Bush, Christie should 'look in the mirror,' re-examine campaigns

By AL WEAVER (@ALWEAVER22)

•​

2/10/16 12:01 AM


CONCORD, N.H. — Coming off a clear second place finish in New Hampshire, allies of Ohio Gov. John Kasich are calling for middling candidates to re-examine their campaigns as the race turns to South Carolina, Nevada and Super Tuesday.
On a high and fresh off Kasich's strong second place posting, two prominent backers of the Ohio governor believe former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie should "look in the mirror" and ultimately consolidate behind a single candidate to best take on Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and try to take home the GOP nomination.
"They have to decide. But I think their performance in New Hampshire shows that they really don't have traction," said former Sen. John E. Sununu, Kasich's campaign chairman in the state. "Jeb Bush did worse tonight than he did when he started — and that's after spending $30-40 million in New Hampshire."
"They've really got to decide whether they really have a path forward. I can't decide that for them," Sununu continued. "This is probably Chris Christie's best state and he didn't get out of single digits, so it's hard to imagine that there's a path forward there. Everyone understands over time fields narrow, they consolidate, and there's no question 1v1 that John Kasich would beat Donald Trump and easily win the nomination and he will win a general election because there is no candidate, no Republican stronger in a general election than John Kasich."

[h=1]DEFENDING THE SECOND AMENDMENT[/h][h=3]EXPERIENCE AND RESULTS LIKE NO OTHER


Gov. John R. Kasich continues to be a strong supporter of the right to bear arms and, as governor, has enacted sensible legislation to defend this basic, constitutional right. John Kasich is a gun-owner himself, and in his 2014 reelection was endorsed by the National Rifle Association for his support of the Second Amendment as an inviolate part of our Constitution.
Removing Burdensome Restrictions for Law-Abiding Concealed Carry Licensees: John Kasichenacted legislation protecting Ohio’s concealed carry laws, including protecting the privacy of permit holders and allowing for reciprocity licenses with other states where permit holders can carry their firearms.
Opposing Barack Obama’s Gun Control Efforts: John Kasich opposes President Obama’s gun control executive orders. The Second Amendment is too important and Obama’s hostility to it is too well known for him to be allowed to go around Congress and undermine the Second Amendment. His efforts to expand the federal government’s interference with Americans’ Right to Keep and Bear Arms are wrong and the governor opposes them.


Upholding Ohio’s Outdoors Traditions: In addition to having a $3.6 billion annual economic impact in Ohio, hunting and fishing are parts of Ohio’s long tradition of enjoying our natural places. John Kasich upheld this heritage by enacting legislation that removes restrictions on licensing requirements for hunters and by creating new policies to expand hunting rights in Ohio.

[/h]

 

[superbeets]

In Search of a David to Take on Goliath

New Hampshire runner-up John Kasich is the anti-Donald Trump. So will the establishment rally to him?

Looking to topple the giant
By Emily ArrowoodFeb. 10, 2016, at 12:59 a.m.+ More

Who can stop Trump?
As expected, Donald Trump cruised to a crushing victory in New Hampshire on Tuesday night. (Who would have believed last June when Trump entered the race that we'd be yawning at his winning New Hampshire?) Trump blew away his competitors, securing well above 30 percent of the vote – more than double that of the first runner-up.
And that's where the real story of New Hampshire lies: Ohio Gov. John Kasich came from the bottom of the pack to secure a second-place finish. Will he be the savior to deliver us from Trump?
"Enormous pressure is on the establishment wing to consolidate around one candidate soon," Republican strategist Ron Bonjean says, "or else it will hand the Republication nomination over to Trump." Indeed, the Republican primary has made a fickle fashion show thus far. The establishment and donor classes have tried on different candidates, sizing up their chances of taking down Trump before casting them aside for the next contender.

[SEE: Editorial Cartoons on Donald Trump]
Even before Trump took over the race, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was supposed to be the party's heir-apparent. Leading in the earliest polls (pre-Trump, of course), he had the name and the cash to make the establishment drool. But Trump's entrance into the race flat-lined Bush's already lackluster campaign, and Jeb's been floundering ever since to regain steam, with little success. Consider that his campaign is touting his fourth-place finish in New Hampshire as a sign of great momentum. Please clap.
Then there was Ben Carson, an outsider like The Donald but more humble than braggart. Carson shot to favor in August and soared so close to Trump in the polls that the nervous front-runner publicly compared him to a child molester and mocked his self-described violent past. Amid more questions about his biography and bizarre religious and historical beliefs, Carson's near-catatonic excuses proved ineffective and his support plummeted by mid-November.
Enter Sen. Ted Cruz, who almost immediately rose to second place. A month out from the Iowa caucus, he secured endorsements from influential conservatives in the state like Rep. Steve King. Yet almost as quickly as Cruz settled in behind Trump, the Republican establishment wanted him out. It turns out thatnearly everyone who has come into contact with the senator from Texas dislikes him. With a passion.
Faced with the option of a President Trump or a President Cruz, the GOP looked ready to unfurl a "Make America Great Again" banner over the White House. Yet rather than capitalizing on this momentum, Trump busied himself picking a fight with the GOP's official mouthpiece, Fox News, skipping the last debate before the caucus. Meanwhile, Cruz zeroed in on Iowa's evangelical vote and came out of the Feb. 1 caucus with a surprise win.
[READ: Donald Trump Becomes the Biggest Iowa Loser]
Now desperate, the establishment looked to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for salvation. Rubio took the bronze in Iowa but treated it like a runaway victory, and that was good enough for the Washington establishment. He shot up in national polls and climbed to second place behind Trump in New Hampshire last week. He looked to be just the bright, energetic contender the party had been waiting on to unite its factions and take down Trump – until he famously malfunctioned at last week's GOP debate,earning nicknames like "Rubot" and "Marcobot." Rubio finished fifth in New Hampshire.
Which brings us to Ohio Gov. John Kasich. "What's clear is that Christie's suicide attack against Rubio had an impact on voters who turned to Kasich and Bush as an alternative," says Bonjean. Long overlooked by the Republican establishment, the governor is suddenly number two.
[SEE: Editorial Cartoons on the 2016 Presidential Elections]
Kasich bet the farm on New Hampshire. Barely two months ago, he was polling sixth among GOP candidates in the Granite State. He put in more appearances there than any other Republican and built up a muscular ground operation, and it paid off.
Whether or not Kasich's win is also a win for the establishment is up to the party itself. The revolving door of favored alternatives to Trump is spinning faster and faster, nurturing the chaos that has handicapped Republican opposition to Trump from the start. But if it stops with Kasich, there could be bright days ahead.
Kasich is everything Trump is not. He's experienced – serving nine terms in Congress before becoming governor; bipartisan – the twice-elected chief executive of critical swing state Ohio; thoughtful *– he's consistently touted realistic and detailed policy platforms, and even The New York Times endorsed him as "the only plausible choice for Republicans tired of the extremism and inexperience on display in this race." He'd be a formidable opponent to Democrats in the general election.
[READ: Win One for the Revolution]
If Republicans can rally around Kasich, Trump's a goner. It's a big if – Kasich didn't finish far enough ahead of Bush (who finished fourth) or Rubio to decisively clear the field. Without a concerted effort to consolidate voters around one candidate, the madness seems ripe to continue in South Carolina. My guess is that Trump will continue his winning streak in the Palmetto state next week – though pundits predict Cruz might carry the day with the evangelical vote, my read is that anti-immigrant sentiment runs so deep in the South, where voters are still miffed that Barack Obama has been president for eight years, that Trump will prevail. But still, the division would remain. But if Republicans rally around Kasich, where can Trump go from South Carolina? Not very far, if two-thirds of the GOP sided with Kasich and the rational wing of the party.
All we've heard from the Republican establishment this cycle is weeping and the gnashing of teeth over Trump's lead. And now they have a man in hand who could topple the tyrant – let's see if they truly want to.

[h=1]Republicans Need To Treat Donald Trump As The Front-Runner[/h]By NATE SILVER

 

[Dave007inVegas]

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The best possible spin!

John Kasich, Son of a Mailman, Wins Establishment Primary in New Hampshire!

on February 9, 2016 in Concord, New Hampshire.">


http://www.breitbart.com/big-govern...-wins-establishment-primary-in-new-hampshire/

 

[The Guesser]

No surprise to those of us who pay attention, and are sane. They finally put Kasich in matchups against Bernie and Hillary. He does better than any other R. The only question is if the R's are smart enough to select their best General Election candidate. A Ticket of Kasich/Rubio would be the D's worst nightmare.

General Election: Trump vs. Clinton	USA Today/Suffolk	Clinton 43, Trump 45	Trump +2
General Election: Trump vs. Sanders	USA Today/Suffolk	Sanders 43, Trump 44	Trump +1
General Election: Cruz vs. Clinton	USA Today/Suffolk	Cruz 45, Clinton 44	Cruz +1
General Election: Cruz vs. Sanders	USA Today/Suffolk	Sanders 44, Cruz 42	Sanders +2
General Election: Rubio vs. Clinton	USA Today/Suffolk	Rubio 48, Clinton 42	Rubio +6
General Election: Rubio vs. Sanders	USA Today/Suffolk	Rubio 46, Sanders 42	Rubio +4
General Election: Kasich vs. Clinton	USA Today/Suffolk	Kasich 49, Clinton 38	Kasich +11
General Election: Kasich vs. Sanders	USA Today/Suffolk	Kasich 44, Sanders 41	Kasich +3

 

[SheriffJoe]

No surprise to those of us who pay attention, and are sane. They finally put Kasich in matchups against Bernie and Hillary. He does better than any other R. The only question is if the R's are smart enough to select their best General Election candidate. A Ticket of Kasich/Rubio would be the D's worst nightmare.

General Election: Trump vs. Clinton	USA Today/Suffolk	Clinton 43, Trump 45	Trump +2
General Election: Trump vs. Sanders	USA Today/Suffolk	Sanders 43, Trump 44	Trump +1
General Election: Cruz vs. Clinton	USA Today/Suffolk	Cruz 45, Clinton 44	Cruz +1
General Election: Cruz vs. Sanders	USA Today/Suffolk	Sanders 44, Cruz 42	Sanders +2
General Election: Rubio vs. Clinton	USA Today/Suffolk	Rubio 48, Clinton 42	Rubio +6
General Election: Rubio vs. Sanders	USA Today/Suffolk	Rubio 46, Sanders 42	Rubio +4
General Election: Kasich vs. Clinton	USA Today/Suffolk	Kasich 49, Clinton 38	Kasich +11
General Election: Kasich vs. Sanders	USA Today/Suffolk	Kasich 44, Sanders 41	Kasich +3

Anyone who posts "matchups" at this point before either party has chosen their nominee is an imbecile worthy of ridicule.

There are so many unforeseen events that come into play during a general election (a poor debate showing, natural disasters, personalities that simply don't wear well etc.) which can tilt the balance one way or the other.

Nationally "electable" or "non-electable" Republican (before the majority of the electorate even knows who the candidates are!) face)(*^%

 

[The Guesser]

[h=1]John Kasich best Republican to beat Hillary Clinton this fall, USA TODAY poll says[/h] Chrissie Thompson, cthompson@enquirer.com2:44 p.m. EST February 17, 2016

(Photo: Heidi Heilbrunn/The Greenville News)


John Kasich would perform better than any other Republican in a general election matchup against Democrat Hillary Clinton, and he is among the two best Republicans to take on Democrat Bernie Sanders, a USA TODAY / Suffolk University pollshows.
But the national poll, taken Thursday through Monday, ranks the Ohio governor fourth among Republicans' first-choice presidential candidates. He finishes well behind Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and edges out Jeb Bush.
Among all voters, Kasich performs the best out of the top four Republicans in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup with Democrat Hillary Clinton. More than 49 percent of voters say they would choose him, while 38 percent say they would vote for Clinton.
Skeptics have often questioned Kasich's ability to win over GOP voters, given his moderate stances on issues such as Medicaid expansion and immigration. Still, Kasich has continued to sell bipartisanship and defend his moderate stances at campaign stops, even in the conservative South. The poll suggests that strategy, combined with his attempt to stay out of the fray at GOP debates, has sunk in nationally with independents as the Republican nominating contest has continued.
The next strongest Republican against Clinton is Marco Rubio, who leads Clinton 47.5 percent to 41.6 percent. Trump and Cruz edge out Clinton by less than 2 percentage points. The pollsters did not include a head-to-head matchup with the fifth-place Republican, Bush.
Against Sanders, Kasich's margin is slimmer. Nearly 44 percent say they would choose Kasich, while 40.7 percent say they would vote for Sanders.
Rubio has a slightly bigger margin than Kasich over Sanders, 45.8 percent to 41.8 percent. The poll shows Trump over Sanders by 1 percentage point and Sanders defeating Cruz by 2 percentage points.
The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.
Kasich has long pointed to his strength in swing-state Ohio as an advantage to his presidential candidacy. No Republican has won the White House without winning Ohio, and polls have shown his approval rating in the state tops 60 percent.
Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, was unsuccessful in fending off Kasich's challenge to the office in 2010. The Democrat hopes to run again in 2016, this time for U.S. Senate.
But Strickland, a close ally of Clinton, this week acknowledged Kasich's continued strength in the state and the problem his candidacy could pose for Democrats competing in Ohio.
"That'd make it tough for me," Strickland told The Enquirer editorial board, referencing Kasich as a possible GOP nominee.

 

[The Guesser]

[h=4]STANDS OUT[/h][h=4]02.18.16 12:01 AM ET[/h]
[h=1]John Kasich: He’s Conservative, but at Least He’s Sane[/h]I worked for Kasich on Capitol Hill. Yes, he’s very conservative. But there are a few surprises in there, and he’s in Bizarro World.
With his surprising second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary, Ohio governorJohn Kasich has vaulted out of the pack of also-rans to become the latest hope of two distinct groups of people: Republican operatives fearing what Donald Trump’s berserker candidacy might do to their party, and ordinary citizens simply hoping to have a sane presidential candidate to vote for.

Until this past week, Kasich has not attracted much attention, mainly because the current dynamic of media coverage encourages histrionics and preening. But by appearing halfway normal, as he did at last Saturday’s debate in South Carolina, and not engaging in theatrics about carpetbombing, waterboarding, or ripping up treaties, he has become the default choice of those who would worry if Kasich’s opponents ever got their hands on the nuclear switch.

He has the advantage (and disadvantage) of a long record. I had a chance to see him in action as I worked for him for 17 years on budget and armed services issues—although I’ve had no connection to him in over a decade, or to his campaign, and am now a political independent.


In the 1980s, at the dawn of his congressional career, many members of his own party considered Kasich a conservative bomb thrower—he would offer his own budget, something back-benchers weren’t supposed to do in those days. He has not changed ideologically or temperamentally—his 2011 effort to roll back labor protection for state employees was too extreme and Ohio voters overwhelmingly defeated it—but while Kasich has remained a staunch conservative, much of his party has lurched so far right it has entered Bizarro World.

This fact accounts for Kasich’s reputation as a RINO (Republican in name only) and why it may be more difficult for him to win his own party’s nomination than the general election. His apostasy in having Ohio accept Medicaid under the Affordable care Act is unforgivable to Republicans who consider health insurance for the poor to be an instrument of Satan. Likewise, in 1994 he voted for an assault weapons ban, pure heresy for the burgeoning Ted Nugent wing of his party. Kasich’s practice of occasionally dissing wealthy GOP donors who are accustomed to blind deference is considered a minus among the party’s big wigs.

Those deeds might help, though, in a general election. So might his national security experience: eighteen years on the House Armed Services Committee counts for far more involvement in that field than all his opponents combined. Refreshingly, as a congressman he avoided the kneejerk military interventionism that is now mandatory for GOP candidates. He opposed authorizing the Marines’ mission in Lebanon in 1983; the bombing of the Marine barracks in October of that year and President Reagan’s decision to quickly withdraw vindicated Kasich’s stand.

Similarly, he opposed President Clinton’s bombing of Serbia, which in his view amounted to a drive-by shooting with cruise missiles in a conflict in which no discernible U.S. interests were involved. He was also able to work across the aisle with Democrats to put a stake through the heart of the B-2 bomber, a cold war anachronism, which at $2.2 billion a copy had become an unaffordable luxury.

As Budget Committee chairman, Kasich was also present at the creation of the first balanced budget since the Eisenhower era. While other factors, such as an avalanche of revenues from the dot.com bubble, set the stage for the achievement, he had a formidable job just to keep his own colleagues on task. The defense hawks were always itching to bust the budget caps with more Pentagon spending. And then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, who appeared to suffer from ADD, occasionally threatened to derail the difficult march to a balanced budget with novel and unvetted policy visions.

The general election downside? Just as there are legitimate questions about Hillary Clinton’s receiving $675,000 from Goldman Sachs for three speeches, Kasich as a nominee would surely face scrutiny over his eight years as a managing director at Lehman Brothers. The investment bank’s collapse in September 2008, the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history, nearly pitched the global economy into the abyss. Lawsuits to settle the dismantling of Lehman are still reverberating through the financial world. Ohio voters gave him a pass, but national inspection of his record would be more thorough—certainly if Clinton’s campaign had anything to do with it.


Stories occasionally surface about Kasich’s anger management problem. As a former employee, I can corroborate those allegations, as well as his tendency to preachy self-righteousness that is a constant temptation of professional politicians. These are, perhaps, pardonable sins both in view of the tasteless vaudeville act being played out by several of his GOP competitors, and his own positive accomplishments.

Would Kasich make an acceptable president? We could do worse—and I fear we probably will.

Mike Lofgren is a former congressional staff member who served on the House and Senate budget committees. His new book, The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government, appeared January 5, 2016.

 

[superbeets]

2016 US Presidential Election - Republican Presidential Candidate

+ 2000 Kasich

 

[superbeets]

STANDS OUT

02.18.16 12:01 AM ET


John Kasich: He’s Conservative, but at Least He’s Sane

I worked for Kasich on Capitol Hill. Yes, he’s very conservative. But there are a few surprises in there, and he’s in Bizarro World.
With his surprising second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary, Ohio governorJohn Kasich has vaulted out of the pack of also-rans to become the latest hope of two distinct groups of people: Republican operatives fearing what Donald Trump’s berserker candidacy might do to their party, and ordinary citizens simply hoping to have a sane presidential candidate to vote for.

Until this past week, Kasich has not attracted much attention, mainly because the current dynamic of media coverage encourages histrionics and preening. But by appearing halfway normal, as he did at last Saturday’s debate in South Carolina, and not engaging in theatrics about carpetbombing, waterboarding, or ripping up treaties, he has become the default choice of those who would worry if Kasich’s opponents ever got their hands on the nuclear switch.

He has the advantage (and disadvantage) of a long record. I had a chance to see him in action as I worked for him for 17 years on budget and armed services issues—although I’ve had no connection to him in over a decade, or to his campaign, and am now a political independent.


In the 1980s, at the dawn of his congressional career, many members of his own party considered Kasich a conservative bomb thrower—he would offer his own budget, something back-benchers weren’t supposed to do in those days. He has not changed ideologically or temperamentally—his 2011 effort to roll back labor protection for state employees was too extreme and Ohio voters overwhelmingly defeated it—but while Kasich has remained a staunch conservative, much of his party has lurched so far right it has entered Bizarro World.

This fact accounts for Kasich’s reputation as a RINO (Republican in name only) and why it may be more difficult for him to win his own party’s nomination than the general election. His apostasy in having Ohio accept Medicaid under the Affordable care Act is unforgivable to Republicans who consider health insurance for the poor to be an instrument of Satan. Likewise, in 1994 he voted for an assault weapons ban, pure heresy for the burgeoning Ted Nugent wing of his party. Kasich’s practice of occasionally dissing wealthy GOP donors who are accustomed to blind deference is considered a minus among the party’s big wigs.

Those deeds might help, though, in a general election. So might his national security experience: eighteen years on the House Armed Services Committee counts for far more involvement in that field than all his opponents combined. Refreshingly, as a congressman he avoided the kneejerk military interventionism that is now mandatory for GOP candidates. He opposed authorizing the Marines’ mission in Lebanon in 1983; the bombing of the Marine barracks in October of that year and President Reagan’s decision to quickly withdraw vindicated Kasich’s stand.

Similarly, he opposed President Clinton’s bombing of Serbia, which in his view amounted to a drive-by shooting with cruise missiles in a conflict in which no discernible U.S. interests were involved. He was also able to work across the aisle with Democrats to put a stake through the heart of the B-2 bomber, a cold war anachronism, which at $2.2 billion a copy had become an unaffordable luxury.

As Budget Committee chairman, Kasich was also present at the creation of the first balanced budget since the Eisenhower era. While other factors, such as an avalanche of revenues from the dot.com bubble, set the stage for the achievement, he had a formidable job just to keep his own colleagues on task. The defense hawks were always itching to bust the budget caps with more Pentagon spending. And then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, who appeared to suffer from ADD, occasionally threatened to derail the difficult march to a balanced budget with novel and unvetted policy visions.

The general election downside? Just as there are legitimate questions about Hillary Clinton’s receiving $675,000 from Goldman Sachs for three speeches, Kasich as a nominee would surely face scrutiny over his eight years as a managing director at Lehman Brothers. The investment bank’s collapse in September 2008, the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history, nearly pitched the global economy into the abyss. Lawsuits to settle the dismantling of Lehman are still reverberating through the financial world. Ohio voters gave him a pass, but national inspection of his record would be more thorough—certainly if Clinton’s campaign had anything to do with it.


Stories occasionally surface about Kasich’s anger management problem. As a former employee, I can corroborate those allegations, as well as his tendency to preachy self-righteousness that is a constant temptation of professional politicians. These are, perhaps, pardonable sins both in view of the tasteless vaudeville act being played out by several of his GOP competitors, and his own positive accomplishments.

Would Kasich make an acceptable president? We could do worse—and I fear we probably will.

Mike Lofgren is a former congressional staff member who served on the House and Senate budget committees. His new book, The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government, appeared January 5, 2016.

 

[superbeets]

No surprise to those of us who pay attention, and are sane. They finally put Kasich in matchups against Bernie and Hillary. He does better than any other R. The only question is if the R's are smart enough to select their best General Election candidate. A Ticket of Kasich/Rubio would be the D's worst nightmare.

General Election: Trump vs. Clinton	USA Today/Suffolk	Clinton 43, Trump 45	Trump +2
General Election: Trump vs. Sanders	USA Today/Suffolk	Sanders 43, Trump 44	Trump +1
General Election: Cruz vs. Clinton	USA Today/Suffolk	Cruz 45, Clinton 44	Cruz +1
General Election: Cruz vs. Sanders	USA Today/Suffolk	Sanders 44, Cruz 42	Sanders +2
General Election: Rubio vs. Clinton	USA Today/Suffolk	Rubio 48, Clinton 42	Rubio +6
General Election: Rubio vs. Sanders	USA Today/Suffolk	Rubio 46, Sanders 42	Rubio +4
General Election: Kasich vs. Clinton	USA Today/Suffolk	Kasich 49, Clinton 38	Kasich +11
General Election: Kasich vs. Sanders	USA Today/Suffolk	Kasich 44, Sanders 41	Kasich +3

 

[Willie99]

why are conservatives supposed to care what libtards like?

If we were idiots, we'd be Democrats

It's a matter of principle, you can't change because the party of poverty disagrees with you, lest you want to join them

 

[The Guesser]

why are conservatives supposed to care what libtards like?

If we were idiots, we'd be Democrats

It's a matter of principle, you can't change because the party of poverty disagrees with you, lest you want to join them

Just the Wrong Way Idiot doing what he do, again, being wrong. Kasich is the best REPUBLICAN chance to get a REPUBLICAN elected POTUS.

 

[The Guesser]

Another Day, another General election matchup poll where Kasich fairs better than any R. That's without any ink, any push whatsoever compared to the rest. Maybe the fools voting in the R primaries will get the message eventually, and nominate the guy who has the best chance to win a General Election. :think2:

General Election: Trump vs. Clinton	Quinnipiac	Clinton 44, Trump 43	Clinton +1
General Election: Cruz vs. Clinton	Quinnipiac	Cruz 46, Clinton 43	Cruz +3
General Election: Rubio vs. Clinton	Quinnipiac	Rubio 48, Clinton 41	Rubio +7
General Election: Kasich vs. Clinton	Quinnipiac	Kasich 47, Clinton 39	Kasich +8
General Election: Bush vs. Clinton	Quinnipiac	Clinton 43, Bush 44	Bush +1
General Election: Trump vs. Sanders	Quinnipiac	Sanders 48, Trump 42	Sanders +6
General Election: Cruz vs. Sanders	Quinnipiac	Sanders 49, Cruz 39	Sanders +10
General Election: Rubio vs. Sanders	Quinnipiac	Sanders 47, Rubio 41	Sanders +6
General Election: Kasich vs. Sanders	Quinnipiac	Sanders 45, Kasich 41	Sanders +4
General Election: Bush vs. Sanders	Quinnipiac	Sanders 49, Bush 39	Sanders +10

 

[Dave007inVegas]

Just the Wrong Way Idiot doing what he do, again, being wrong. Kasich is the best REPUBLICAN chance to get a REPUBLICAN elected POTUS.

Want to bet? Lifetime ban from the Poli forum.


Kasich wins the nomination, I’m history.


Kasich loses the nomination, you’re history.


?

 

[SheriffJoe]

Want to bet? Lifetime ban from the Poli forum.


Kasich wins the nomination, I’m history.


Kasich loses the nomination, you’re history.


?

popcorn-eatinggif