Tag: john kasich

Ted Cruz just took a very big step towards winning Indiana.

You’ve heard the news by now: Ted Cruz is going to let John Kasich take a clear shot at Oregon and New Mexico in exchange for Kasich getting the heck out of the Indiana primary. It’s a trade that Cruz needed, and it’s gonna scramble all the calculations, in Cruz’s favor. It also suggests that the ‘vote for whoever’s ahead: Cruz or Kasich’ state strategic voting rule is now in full effect everywhere else. Continue reading Ted Cruz just took a very big step towards winning Indiana.

Quote of the Day, John Kasich Self-Torpedoes Any Excuse For His Own Campaign edition.

I mean, it’s not like there’s any OTHER reason to vote for the man at this point.

“I’m going to be nobody’s vice president, OK?” [John] Kasich said, interrupting a questioner at a town hall in Wauwatosa. “I will not be anybody’s vice president. Just so you know.”

So, really, that’s all she wrote.

Moe Lane

PS: Yes, I have heard that online report/rumor/argument that Ohio’s delegates would be switched over to Trump if Kasich drops.  As I understand it – he said, knowing full well that the point can (and perhaps would) be argued endlessly in comments sections across the land – suspending the campaign should avoid that scenario.

My RedState post on Boehner endorsing Kasich.

Found here. Short version: …despite the collective protestations of the RedState comments section, John Boehner endorsing John Kasich probably helps Kasich.  I think, in fact, that Kasich wins Ohio (not because of this, but it’s not going to hurt him). Which keeps those delegates out of Trump’s hands, so ‘huzzah’ without the original sarcastic tone.

Tweet of the Day, Go Home, @JohnKasich edition.

You are not helping, John Kasich.

If you do not know whether or not your purpose is to be President, then you will not be President. This is how it works. Go home, John Kasich.

One note about people dropping out before Super Tuesday…

…they will not.

:pause:

Well, maybe Ben Carson will: I saw the vaguest of suggestions that he’s going to take a good, hard look at his numbers after tomorrow’s Nevada caucuses. But it’s safe to bet that John Kasich will stay in at least until next week*; and obviously Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Donald Trump are going to long-haul it.

Moe Lane

*He wants to stay longer. The GOP ‘Establishment**’ has other ideas.  The RNC could certainly help it along by getting those debate spots down to three.

**I assume that Politico is actually using a definition of ‘Establishment’ that doesn’t include me for a change, although I certainly think that it’s far past time for John Kasich to go back to Ohio and start planning a Senate run.

John Kasich did himself no favors with his Medicaid expansion answer.

James Taranto drilled down on this, I think:

Continue reading John Kasich did himself no favors with his Medicaid expansion answer.

Well, so much for John Kasich for President.

Sure, the Obamacare/Medicaid expansion thing was and is horribly problematical. That was known. But then there’s this:

Kasich’s opening remarks, which were followed by a question-and-answer session, focused on his fiscal record as a congressman, where he chaired the House Budget Committee, and as governor of Ohio, where he has eliminated an $8 billion deficit without raising taxes. He also talked about the need for a renewed bipartisan spirit on both sides of the aisle, citing Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill, and Jack Kemp and Charlie Rangel, as models for contemporary lawmakers to emulate.

(Bolding mine.) Charlie Rangel?

Um.

NO.

The stench of DOOM in Ed Fitzgerald’s (D CAND, Ohio-GOV) campaign.

(via @baseballcrank) It is, of course, too early for a DOOM call itself.  But this is one of the warning signs:

Top employees are preparing to leave Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ed FitzGerald’s campaign, multiple sources have told The Dispatch, choosing to part ways with a candidate who has been bludgeoned by bad headlines all month relating to personal choices he has made.

Campaign manager Nicholas Buis, communication director Daniel McElhatton and press secretary Lauren Hitt are the three FitzGerald staff members preparing to transition away from the campaign, according to sources who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive campaign issues that FitzGerald himself has not announced. Sources said the situation was “still fluid,” but it was likely that at least two – if not all of them – would leave the campaign by week’s end or only work for FitzGerald in greatly reduced roles.

Continue reading The stench of DOOM in Ed Fitzgerald’s (D CAND, Ohio-GOV) campaign.

Hey, remember when Ohio-GOV was considered a pickup opportunity for Democrats?

No, really.

[Ohio] Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald indicated Tuesday that he is staying in the race despite the latest revelation that he drove without a valid driver’s license for years.

The FitzGerald campaign has been rocked within the past week as news trickled out about a 2012 incident in which police caught him in a car at 4:30 a.m. with a woman who isn’t his wife and the driver’s license head-scratcher. Meanwhile, a new independent poll shows him 12 points behind Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who just raked in $2.3 million.

You know, you almost have to admire FitzGerald’s basic character: with that kind of paragraph hanging, there is absolutely nothing stopping the man from, say, kicking a puppy on national television except his own moral code. I mean, it’s not like doing so will really hurt FitzGerald’s electoral chances at this point… Continue reading Hey, remember when Ohio-GOV was considered a pickup opportunity for Democrats?

Democrat in Ohio-GOV losing ground among people who… know who he is?

Wait, what?

I almost don’t want to write about this.

Ed FitzGerald, the Democrat running against Gov. John Kasich, is somehow less well known today than he was a few months ago.

A Quinnipiac University Poll out Wednesday shows 65 percent of registered Ohio voters didn’t know enough about FitzGerald – who announced his campaign in April 2013 – to form an opinion. (The numbers are within the polls’ margins of error.)

That’s actually up from a similar poll in May, when 63 percent said they didn’t know enough about him.

I mean, I have professional pride.  And while I do certainly have tendencies towards cruelty I also have a bad habit of being a big softy when the chips are down.  How do you snark on that?  What can I say about whatshisname that is actually worse than the news that after three months of campaigning people remember him less?   Continue reading Democrat in Ohio-GOV losing ground among people who… know who he is?