Posted on 05/02/2015 7:34:25 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON — Wisconsin's Scott Walker has emerged as a force in the 2016 White House contest. It's a position two other Republican governors from the Midwest, lesser known but similarly ambitious, undoubtedly would like to be in.
Like Walker, John Kasich in Ohio and Rick Snyder in Michigan have strong resumes and political successes in states where the GOP often struggles. They offer a distinct form of pragmatic politics that differs sharply from that of their combative counterpart in Wisconsin.
Kasich has taken steps toward a presidential bid, emboldened by the absence of a clear front-runner and by warm reviews from appearances in New Hampshire and South Carolina. The 62-year-old former congressman was in Washington to sound out prospective staff and gauge establishment support soon after setting up a political organization to facilitate his national ambitions.
"I didn't fall off a turnip truck," Kasich said at a Capitol Hill news conference. He cited his 18 years in Congress, a subsequent decade in the private sector and his current status as a two-term governor. "I'm more experienced than anybody in the field."
(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...
Kasich can be a formidable candidate. He has a warm cheerful personality which will appeal to many.
Looks like it’s going to be a very crowded field.
Don’t be fooled. Kasich and Snyder are RINOs.
Kasich is my governor and an oddball. He has to grow on you, but even then he’s more than willing to use government money to fund programs for the poor. I’m not real sure how to describe him. He’s probably closest to an old Zell Miller democrat.
See Zell Miller -
http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Zell_Miller.htm#Gun_Control
let me tell you about Kasich, from an OH perspective:
The OH state legislature overwhelmingly voted against expanded Medicaid. Kasich's buddies in the for-profit medical sector said they wanted it for enhanced profits, so he engineered an end-run that initiated it without legislature approval. It ran out of the money that was supposed to last until July in February and it's a financial nightmare the folks who actually pay taxes cannot afford.
His balanced budget? Lots of money goes to construction interests, much for unnecessary and even damaging schemes. How does he pay for it? By starving the smaller cities and towns of money they desperately need for basic services. What's the supposed solution? Consolidation, which means less power for residents and more corporate entities gaining from contracts. As far as spending, would you believe Kasich actually gave EXTRA money to Mayor Jackson for Cleveland city schools? And immigration? Senator Portman has actually gotten on the "US jobs for US citizens" bandwagon; from Kasich it's the Sounds of Silence that are deafening.
As far as Kasich's last overwhelming win is concerned, you can thank the dems for that. They ran a seriously flawed candidate, and Kasich destroyed him. That I can say about Kasich....he's an excellent campaigner.
And guts? He could've kept parks and monuments open during the federal government shutdown. He's too much of a middle-of-the-roader for that. And standing up to the teacher's union? A lot of the reforms were already in place.
Kasich is a Chamber of Commerce kinda' guy, bought and paid for. I'm not sure he'd even win in OH. The local governments being starved of funds is getting on everyone's nerves.
I'd put Walker or even Jindahl light years ahead of Kasich.
I live in Ohio...
Kasich has proven he’s not a Conservative over and over.
His expansion of Medicaid is just one example.
As for his personality, I think he’s a weasel and a phony.
AND his current wife is a LIBERAL.
And he’s got those weird eyes.
Nothing wrong with that.
The greedy money-grubbing local governments need to be brutalized from the taxpayer side as well.
Yep, crazy eyes.
I remember back when he was a member of Congress, he had a mole on his nose.
After he filled in for O’Reilly a few times...the mole disappeared.
This facial alteration didn’t help him at all. He still looks like a hunched over, pencil neck jerk.
I disagree. In a small town, there's the usual pols in it for personal gain problem, but it's not as bad as it is with larger-sized governments. I'm impressed how aware people are becoming in their own cities and towns, and the smaller the towns are, the more control voters have over bad ideas.
I'd much rather money went to cities and towns, where voters have some say about how it's spent, than to construction interests who line the pockets of pols they own. It often leads to projects that do more harm than good.
Walker passed Act 10 but didn’t have it cover the police and fireman unions. He survived a recall election that resulted from its passage and it Act 10 remains in effect today. Union membership is dropping like a stone in the public sector as a direct result.
Kasich’s legislature passed a bill outlawing public sector unions including police and firemen and it was overturned by voter referendum.
So, who’s the more effective leader?
P.S. I could be wrong about the extent of the Ohio bill...it might not have strictly outlawed public sector unions but it was in that vein.
>> looks like a hunched over, pencil neck jerk.<<
Back when I was a kid, life was going swell.
Till something happened, blew every thing to hell.
That night my daddy stumbled in, all pale and weak,
Said “A woman up the block just gave birth to a geek.”
Mom said, “Sell it to the circus, what the heck.”
Dad said, “Nope, this one’s a pencil neck.
And if there’s one thing lower than a side show freak,
It’s a grit eatin’, scum suckin’, pencil neck geek. “
You see if you take a pencil that won’t hold lead,
Looks like a pipe cleaner attached to a head,
Add a buggy whip body with a brain that leaks,
You got yourself a grit eatin’, pencil neck geek.
They say, “these geeks come a dime a dozen.”
I’m lookin’ for the guy who’s supplin’ the dimes.
It’s gonna be real hard times,
for all of these:
Grit eatin’, Scum suckin’, Boot lickin’, Drop kickin’, Gut grindin’, Nail bitin’, Glue sniffin’, Scab pickin’, Butt scratchin’, Egg hatchin’, Sleezy, Smelly, Pepper bellied,
Dirty, lousy, rotten, stinkin’ freaks.
Nothing but a pencil neck geek.
-Freddie Blassie
Nope, every level of town has the same problem...the Soviet School System. Stealing your money and not educating the kids.
After that, examine the salaries of the visible and legitimate "public servants" and tell me why you couldn't do that very same job and be impressed with half their wages, benefits and retirement package.
It's all a cluster...everywhere.
Go ahead, ask me what "services" I would cut.
But the money thing? It goes to the county and it's spent on things like a scoreboard for the Browns, parks to make the outside of the casino prettier, loans to contractors to create more high end housing, and constructing stuff that only benefits "downtown". Give it to the state and it lines contractors pockets, often with inner city roads and other projects that will have people moving from those neighborhoods into the suburbs.
The closer the money is to the people, the more control there is over it.
Looks like it’s going to be a very crowded field.
All of the rest will be supported by the Republican Party because they have been good zombies and have blindly followed (and protected) the party. These are not independent thinkers, only sheep who follow the Senate and House leaders...no matter what!
This time around if we don’t elect some candidates who have the spine to do (and say) what is needed to save our country (rather than their own egos and fortunes)...IT’S OVER!
Free, and great America is hanging by thread off a liberal cliff and if we elect members on either their personality or party resume, the thread will be cut.
I would cut how we are all being "serviced" by faceless unelected do-nothing bureaucrats, making six-figures. The decades-old pile of political hacks given no-show jobs and pensions is bleeding us dry.
Gut the Hack-0-rama!
As far as education is concerned...
"Education" isn't! The only thing educational about it is; our experience has taught us that "public education" is merely a corrupt, self-serving black-hole of legalized theft.
...a big problem is all of the rules and regulations and requirements forced on public schools by the feds.
Just close the damn things...fire everyone.
Left on their own, public schools in many cases would go back to offering courses that prepared students to be good citizens and to be employable.
Just rent the buildings to someone who wants to run a school, or schools.
Save 90% of your town's budget.
In complete agreement.
Well, ok, spin or not, it’s still a crowded field.
If you are correct, and there are only 2 good candidates in that crowded field (and I do agree with you on that) all that means is the 2 good candidates stand to benefit from the crowded field as the bad candidates (the e-candidates) will all be competing with each other for the Moron/Crossover vote and presumably conservatives stick together and finally make a reasoned choice between Walker and Cruz.
But no matter how you say it or what you say, it is in fact a crowded field.
The "combative" Wisconsinite!
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.