Posted on 10/28/2012 10:49:19 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Ohio Gov. John Kasich declared Sunday that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is now poised to beat President Barack Obama in his critical battleground state.
Appearing on NBC's “Meet the Press,” Kasich cited internal campaign polling that shows Romney with a lead in The Buckeye State.
This was the first time that Kasich said Romney could carry the state. He pointed to a swing in momentum since the first presidential debate in which Romney bested President Obama’s lackluster performance.
The debates were a turning point in Romney’s campaign for president because they gave people a chance to see him, rather than what he was portrayed as in commercials and interviews.
“You look at his history and it tells you who the guy is,” Kasich said. “He’s pragmatic, no question about it, but he’s also tough and he’s firm and he understands job creation . . . I’ve never seen a debate have this much impact. The first debate gave people a chance to see him.”
Concerns about people not “getting” Romney should not be an issue, according to Kasich, because of his record in business, as governor of Massachusetts, and in turning around the 2002 Winter Olympics where he was a “pure leader.”
“I believe that he was able to connect with people and they thought, ‘you know, maybe he does get me. And that was an important part of why there’s so much momentum in the state of Ohio right now,” he said.
Kasich, nevertheless, predicted a close election.
“It’s going to be really close,” Kasich said. “I do think we’re going to know before the end of the night. The independent voters are trending high toward Romney.”
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Any word on those buses of Somalians? Maybe the good Governor can look into that?
Close or not close that is the probable outcome.
From his lips to God’s ears.
John Kasich was a major GOP leader during the 90s and it seems he has all but disappeared this election.
Glad he finally decided to show up.
You’re not from OH, are you? ‘Course, I’m not either, but he didn’t exactly disappear and the last great thing he did was become Gov. of OH in 2010 and worked to bring businesses back to OH and to balance the state budget that was totally out of whack.
But you remember him from the ‘90s??
OK...if you say so.
I am sorry, but I didn’t mean to discount him being elevated to the governorship to Ohio.
The point I was making is that during the 90s, he was a national GOP leader, and that as governor, it seems weird that he hasn’t had the same exposure as somebody like Senator Portman, who is an Ohio politician that acts as a surrogate for the Romney campaign, while Kasich hasn’t been visible.
If you are going to be sarcastic and nasty, I wish you would save that for liberals instead of fellow Freepers.
Would have found that most encouraging had I not just read the thread about voter fraud...MIDDLEMAN...and Soros company controlling the count.
This election isn't going to be close.
I think Obama put an extreme focus on Ohio because they knew if Kerry had just flipped Ohio in 2004, he would’ve won the electoral college with more EVs than Bush.
Romney has 248 EVs if he wins VA, NC and FL. Let’s look at what he needs out of the remaining 8 swing states to win, starting from the biggest prize and working down the list. I’ll count all the Obama and Romney-leaning states as wins for their candidate.
Swing states:
Pennsylvania (20)
Ohio (18)
Michigan (16)
Wisconsin (10)
Colorado (9)
Iowa (6)
Nevada (6)
New Hampshire (4)
Winning OH gets him 266. He needs any one of the other 7 remaining swing states to win, the smallest being NH.
Winning PA puts him in the same position at 268 of needing one more state.
Winning MI puts him in almost the same position, except NH wouldn’t be enough to put him over the top then, he’d need any one of the other bigger states.
Winning WI gives him 258 EVs. He needs 12 more EVs to win. It could be CO and any one of NH, IA or NV, or it could just be IA and NV.
If he misses all those bigger states, then he needs all 4 of CO, IA, NV and NH to win outright. He could lose NH in that scenario and still tie, which would guarantee him the win in the tie-breaking House vote, but possibly allow the Senate to elect Biden as V.P.
My opinion is it’s more likely Romney can win CO, NH and WI than it is that he can win OH. He polls best in CO and NH out of all these swing states, and both the Scott Walker recall and Paul Ryan should give him an unusual boost in WI, the same way the auto bailout gives Obama an unusual boost in OH.
Romney should focus like a laser on CO, NH and WI and not put all his eggs in OH. OH is looking to me like PA was for McCain in 2008, a state they’re putting tremendous resources in which is going to prove to be a waste.
If it’s a “landslide” election, the resources in OH won’t make much of a difference and Romney will win over 300 EVs. If it’s a close election, OH is the wrong state to put resources into.
“Kasich, nevertheless, predicted a close election.”
Posted earlier in another thread, but I’ll repeat:
Prediction #2 — if Romney wins enough other states (Iowa, Wisconsin, Colorado, New Hampshire) so that the 18 electoral votes of Ohio are no longer necessary for him to win in the Electoral College, watch the ‘rats drop their struggle to steal Ohio and just walk away....
I would enjoy being proven wrong, and would relish a Romney win in OH of 3-5%.
But I sense this one is going down to the neck-and-neck until the final votes are counted.
I am from OH and the reason that Kasich has not been more visible is because of the drubbing that he took last year for Issue #2. He got pension reform passed in the legislature and the unions got together and got a referendum on the ballot and the repeal passed.
Even though Kasich’s programs have increased employment in the state, his favorability because of Issue 2 is still down lower than it should be. It was a strategic decision on the part of the Romney campaign to not have Kasich highly visible - even though Kasich has been at all of the Romney rallies. On the other hand Portman still remains very popular, hence Portman is Romney’s pointman in Ohio.
Ti Cobra
Thanks, I appreciate the Ohio perspective.
I wish more Freepers who are in the battlegrounds would analyze what is going on in their states more often.
Your comments helped me understand the situation better.
Could not say it better. there are too many fly swatting Freepers who are experts in all manner of things but could not create a winning game if their lives depended on it. Well said.
Earlier this week, Gingrich said the internals from Ohio showed Romney +2. Nice to see Kasich echo this.
Whether a point ahead or a point behind, the key is we are so close that GOTV is more important than ever.
If Romney is as good an executive as I believe he is, he will make sure we get it done next Tuesday.
Gov. Kasich has been out on the campaign trail with Mitt at several rallies. Mostly, it has been Rob Portman. But, Kasich has done what he could.
Wow, mine was the mildest “sarcastic and nasty” I’ve seen here.
I think the explanation offered of his titanic struggle in OH to deal with the situation there and of course he got on the bad side of the unions and was strongly attacked for all his efforts...a la Scott Walker in WI...is a good way of putting what’s been going on with him.
And as was stated, he has participated in the election as best he could, but the more popular Portman is the out-front guy there. Even so, I’ve seen Kasich at rallies and I heard him a couple weeks back on the Sunday night Bill Cunningham radio show out of Cincinnati, in which he commented about the election prospects of Mitt.
He told Bill that in his opinion what Mitt needed to do was follow up his first debate by just continuing to come back and back and back to OH, to let the people there get a sense of him to reinforce what he’s really like as opposed to what Obama and Biden want people to believe, and from that he thought Mitt could win that state.
But stressed he thought it was, and would be even in victory, CLOSE.
It was good to hear him in that interview.
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