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| Ohio Gov. John Kasich at Bureau of Workers' Compensation campaign event about returning funds to employers. |
The State of Ohio pays Gov. Kasich $71.30 per hour. Estimates are out there that suggest John Kasich racked up over a million dollars over the course of his last presidential campaign. Kasich isn't a fan of public scrutiny of his administrations workings, as many requests for public records document. His administration refuses to show the bills Ohio Highway patrolman logged protecting his CEO-ship, when he spent month after month campaigning out of state for a job taxpayers didn't elect him to pursue when he won a second term during the lowest voter-turnout year since World War II.
Kasich wrote another book about his last campaign run, which aside from its title, essentially tells Kasich's personal story again. His book and his campaign have become assets to him as he tries to keep his voice in the public arena, as media fawns over him as to whether he will or he won't make a third try at winning the hearts, minds and votes of Republican Party voters. As the quirky leader looks past his date of retirement from elected office, Kasich has the media right where he wants them: Following his every comment and speculating about his every move on whether he's all talk and no action for 2020 or whether he'll again enter the fray, this time to take on an incumbent GOP president who shellacked the one-time boy who wanted to become a priest but found politics had a more direct road to fame and fortune.
Republican candidates to succeed him are either distancing themselves from him, or in the case of his two-term Lt. Governor partner, Mary Taylor, trying to wriggle out of his endorsement of her. Democrats, meanwhile, sound like they'd vote for him based on their constant adulation of his so-called "Kasich expansion of Medicaid." From Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown, running for a third term this year, to Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper, Kasich enjoys them touting his work without ever once returning the compliment on any issue.
CNN appears to have signed on, like Columbus' hometown newspaper, The Columbus Dispatch, to promoting Kasich for his next Quixotic run at the White House. "'Why doesn't he shut up and go away.' And these come from staunch Republican Trump people were sick of" me, Kasich told reporters, CNN reports. "So, that must tell me I'm doing something right."
Kasich loves being Daniel in the Lions Den, from afar, not so much to actually being in the den itself. The performance politician he is, even though he says he's sick of politics and politicians, Kasich is careful to pick and choose where he shows up. And showing up in the Lion's Den, where someone might drill down on him for his terrible record in Ohio that includes tax giveaways that mostly benefit the rich, signing gun bills that relax rules while signing anti-abortion bills that tighten rules, standing by as for-profit charter schools rip off the state for billions, being on the wrong side of gay marriage, and his poor performance on creating good-paying jobs for Ohioans still looking for one, isn't where you'll see him.
Where you will see him is on national TV shows where he's the reliable dancing bear to mouth anti-trump criticism and in the tiny Libertarian-oriented state of New Hampshire, scene of his best performance in the 2016 GOP race for president.
When he needs a helping hand from above, Kasich doesn't shy away from play the God card. CNN reports Kasich saying, "The Lord" could eventually tell him to "shut up," but it hasn't happened yet. It's sort of like, it's not just you hear voices. You get a sense of what you're supposed to do. Keep doing what I'm doing," is how he describes his short term plan. He continued, Even though there are times when I can be severely criticized, it's okay, it's part of it. If you can't take a punch, get out of the business, you know?"
Kasich has Ohio in his rear view mirror. His comment about being out of state so much is that Ohio is actually easy to run from afar. Had Kasich fessed up about whether he would or would not run for president when he ran for re-election in 2014, that would have been a demonstration of honesty few have seen over the years. At the time, media seemed amused by the fact that Kasich had no formal re-election campaign event, adding it his well-known penchant to go rogue as a modern-day Pecks Bad Boy.
Soon to be out of office, and looking for a new perch where he can be his bombastic self, John Kasich doesn't want to go back to Wall Street, where he worked for Lehman Brothers before it failed and the American economy melted down. Kasich is looking for his next TV gig, like the one he had at Fox News, where he often substituted for Bill O'Reilly and hosted a show about the heartland.
John Kasich is independently wealthy, so he can afford to stay in the media spotlight if media wants him in it. He has a handful of contributors who can pay for his voice to stay in the mix. He'll continue to make appearances to talk about bringing people together, when examples of that back in Ohio are few and far between.
Kasich won't run as an independent candidate in 2020, a move that guarantees he'll become another foot-note on the list of losers. He won't lead a third party in a couple years, either, since he's Republican from his head to his toe, even though one of his favorite claims is he "has the right" to refashion the GOP in his image. Trump controls the party, and the party is behind Trump, not Kasich.
Media buzz will last as long as media toys with him like a cat plays with a mouse. In most lion's dens outside the Bible, the lions thank God for delivering them their next meal.
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