The only hope for the Republican establishment at this point is a brokered convention. They need deny Trump as many delegates as possible. This is only going to happen if Cruz stays in and improves his performance, and Rubio steps his game up as well and plucks off a few states. I don’t see it happening. Trump is going to coast to the nomination. Cruz has too much money to drop, and even if he did its not clear Rubio would be the sole beneficiary. Trump is going to go ham on Super Tuesday. Kasich is and always was a non-entity.
Yeah, he’s seen as moderate, but he’s the most against abortion rights. As governor, he’s signed off on a lot of anti-abortion legislation:
And his office actually wrote some of the legislation.
It is funny how this isn’t proclaimed more. I guess he’s trying for moderate votes, since so many of the other candidates are loud and proud super conservatives. But this stuff isn’t exactly secret.
Kasich is a hard right conservative. People were confused about Jon Huntsman that way too. He was no moderate. But the media and the public often perceive moderation in a lack of partisanship. and that’s what makes Kasich “moderate”. He doesn’t hate the other side. Plus, as was shown during the union fight, he gracefully accepts defeat, which makes him look mature, which is also “moderate” by modern Republican standards.
But yeah, Kasich is definitely a very far right conservative, no question. You’ll get no denials from him on that point.
Not that Trump nomination wouldn’t be a disaster but this would be a disaster as well. I can see the general election GOP vote being very depressed if 30-40% of the primary electorate just saw their candidate get the election “stolen” from him. “Hey, they just stole it from my man Trump but sure I’m going to vote for the Rubio guy”? – Probably not.
Amen. Although it’s a sad state of affairs when a solid conservative is hailed as the “sane moderate” just because he’s not as bat shit insane as the rest of the pack and says stuff like “maybe global warming is real” or “building a giant wall of electrified alligators on the border isn’t a reasonable solution”.
That makes sense. He’s not moderate in his views, but since he’s not actively calling to stop anything that the other side tries to do, he’s seen as moderate.
But even so, I’ve seen pro-life people wonder why he doesn’t trumpet his record more. If he wanted to get more conservative votes, he has a record he could point to. It seems there must be some reason he doesn’t campaign more on that.
Because that’s his brand. He’s the moderate, sane choice, so the focus is more on things like expanding Medicaid and balancing the budget with Bill Clinton.
Kasich’s basically marketing himself to the base as the guy who can win, and who has the experience to govern well once in office. The GOP base is often portrayed as a bunch of far right loonies(and most of them are!), but when you’ve lost two straight elections there’s also the desire to win one.
Care to make it interesting? US$20 says Trump isn’t the GOP nominee.
Unfortunately for Kasich, the prevailing view from the Right is that they lost because Romney and McCain were squishy moderates and not True Constitutional Conservatives who will actively battle against the evil of the Left.
That’s what the loudest faction believes, but I’m a pretty hardcore Tea partier myself except on social issues. My compadres all talk about how much they love the Constitution, but our Constitution actually makes total control of government very, very hard. Actually impossible when you include states’ rights, as supporters of ACA have found out. So even as a Tea Partier, there’s almost nothing I’m willing to do without Democratic buy-in, even if it means doing nothing. Barring an imminent crisis of course.
I’m not into the whole “kumbaya let’s all work together” school of bipartisanship, but I am into the idea that our system of government will always mean that Democrats have levers to stop us from doing what we want to do. So we have to go to them and say, “Guys, this is our priority, what can we do to get to yes?”
The Mass. primary isn’t some distant future event. Its in a little over a week. If Kaisch is going to drop millions in ads there, he might want to get on that kinda soon.
I’d say that Kasich is a very far right conservative deal cutter as opposed to poseur or bomb thrower. Like Representative Dick Cheney back in 1978-89. It’s not even partisanship exactly: Cheney was highly partisan but that didn’t stop him from negotiating.
As it happens, I don’t have a problem with gadflies. I just don’t think they should be in leadership positions. That’s not their role.
And cutting Planned Parenthood’s funding. Can’t forget that ‘moderate, sane’ bit of policy.
He’s the extremely conservative but still sane choice.
Unfortunately for Kasich, sanity itself is regarded by most Republicans these days as evidence of being a squish.
There have been 3 polls of Michigan in between NH and SC, and they have Trump leading by 10, 18, and 30 points.
If Kasich loses Michigan, does he hang in for one more week for Ohio to vote, or does he call it quits immediately?
ISTM that depends entirely on his remaining budget and how much of it is already spent in OH.
He can’t unbuy the OH yard signs & OH robocalls & probably can’t unbuy most of the OH TV ads on 1 to 6 days notice.
Since the money’s gone, might as well use the whole thing to boost his homestate profile One. Last. Time. Besides, once in awhile the Hail Mary pass is caught, not intercepted.
Kasich said today that in his first political campaign, “Women came out of their kitchens”. Typical Republican, can’t seem to think that women have lives outside of being barefoot pregnant and in the kitchen.
I just looked it up.
His first campaign was in 1978. The height of the original Women’s Lib movement. Although to be fair, he was campaigning in OH and they may not have heard of Libbers yet. So women coming out from their kitchens might have been literally true then.
Whether it’s a figuratively smart thing to say in 2016 depends on whether you’re pandering to the trogs or not. Or are yourself a trog. My bet is “yes” and “yes”. What do you think?
Eh, I have a hard time getting riled up. His first campaign was in the 70’s and, while there certainly were working women, there were also a heck of a lot more stay at home wives/mothers. Tone deaf but I can’t work up any actual outrage.
Here is the entirety of what Kasich said, parts were edited out of the clips that were going around this morning. Bolding mine:
Yeah, I remember when Annie Lennox and Aretha Franklin sang about coming out of the kitchen. My first thought was just like yours: “typical Republicans”.
They did?