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| Former Ohio Gov. John Rasich |
Enter stage right, Ohio's recently departed two-term Ohio Governor, John Kasich. The "National Chaplain" got shellacked in 2016 when he and more than a dozen other Republicans were dispatched by The Donald like so many ducks at a county fair shooting gallery. Remaining in the race long past his use-by date, Kasich has shown himself to be a sore loser who found his media niche in being the Trump critic's dancing bear.
Now gone as governor, Kasich hopes his new post-governor gig as a CNN political contributor will keep him before the nation's eyes as a Republican alternative to Trump and his base voters who stand by their man's policies and style.
In one of his TV appearances this past weekend after he landed a talent agent and became employed as another CNN political pundit, John Kasich no doubt relished his guest appearance on Bill Maher's new season opening show Friday. Whatever rosy outcome he thought might happen, didn't, as Maher put Kasich in irons with one simple question followed by one simple encouragement.
The upshot of Kasich's opening segment, during which he tried but failed to impress Maher with his now-cemented narrative that he's got new ideas other Republicans don't, Maher urged Kasich to run so he could do the nation a favor by splitting the Republican vote, that would thereby help elect a Democrat president.
Maher labeled the 66-year old Kasich as "Republican Classic" even as Kasich congratulated himself for accepting expanded Medicaid when so many other GOP governors said no. A former Fox News channel TV host, Kasich has honed his public relations shtick over four decades in public office. Trying to schmooz Maher, Kasich jokingly asked the progressive and very liberal HBO host of "Real Time" if he wanted to run his presidential campaign? Maher said no.
Dubbed the "National Chaplain" because he loves to invoke his sanctimonious Bible beliefs into his ideas for governance, Kasich became easily paralyzed when Maher asked him the simple question of what Republicans stand for these days? Further quieting the glib governor, who tried to dominate the segment, Maher told him that he couldn't win, but he should enter the race anyhow so his candidacy could help a Democrat win the presidency in 2020. Unable to explain to Maher why Republicans are as insane as the president, Kasich fumbled his answer with more platitudes—including his current favorite, "change happens from the bottom up"—and vagueness.
For all his many sermonettes about his many new ideas, Kasich offers none because lazy reporters don't ask him to name them.
Some simple background on Ohio politics shows that Republicans have dominated state level politics going back to the early 1990s. During this long red wedding, one Democrat politico who voters kept returning to office was Sherrod Brown, a Democrat. Last November Brown won his third 6-year term in Washington by defeating his GOP and Trump-endorsed opponent by about six points.
Known for his now trademark features of a gravelly voice and Boss suits appropriately rumpled, Brown hasn't declared his yet declared his presidential candidacy as have eight others, including Elizabeth Warren, Julian Castro, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Richard Ojeda and Andrew Yang.
Nonetheless, Brown's interesting victory in Trump Ohio has created a buzz about him running for president.
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| Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown talks to Ohio's leading independent report |
From his early days in the Ohio House to his two-terms as Secretary of State to seven terms in the US House of Representatives and his dozen years in the US Senate, Sen. Brown has shown none of Kasich's Aaron Burr-like raw, manipulative ambition to be president.
Down home, Brown has built his bona fides by championing common workers and programs and policies that address their needs. From worker and union rights to fair-trade policies and battling Wall Street, from defending women's rights and advocating for a healthcare public option, Brown is the virtual polar opposite of John Kasich on so many issues.
Kasich has encased himself in Reagan-era beliefs that market dynamics will solve most problems and that going to bat for supply-side CEOs, especially lowering their income tax rates, will create jobs and wealth as their largess trickles down to the less well off.
In Brown's world, the "Dignity of Work" has become his new rallying cry as he contemplates more than a brief flirtation with the prospect of running for president, as others think he should do. His aw-shucks demeanor, world views and pragmatic economic affiliation with America's shrinking middle class could hold the key to unlocking the Electoral College vote in 2020. A white, male, moderate from an important Heartland state like Ohio, Brown's place on the next ticket could prevent Trump from winning the Midwestern states he won two years ago, that put him over the top and into the Oval Office.
Remember, it was just two years ago that Brown made Hillary Clinton's short-list of VP potentials.
So it begs the question, if John "Classic Republican" Kasich does what he teases about doing—actually declaring he's a candidate for president—would his vanity campaign, guaranteed to lose as Bill Maher said it would, help elect a Democratic ticket Sherrod Brown might find himself on?
Brown is the "dark horse" candidate for some, should he announce he's a candidate, which becomes increasingly possible the more he talks about plans to visit some early primary states. He's said that he'll make a determination in the coming months about whether he's going to launch that campaign, resign himself to being a strong voice for whomever Democrats do nominate to be their standard bearer.
As for John Kasich, his predictable and now rote routine as National Chaplain soothing the pangs of a dysfunctional nation may wear thin on CNN, especially if and when anyone with any history of his record in Congress or in Ohio challenges him on his long-held policies and programs.
Meanwhile, Maher showed how easily Kasich can be disarmed. Maybe other reporters, especially the high-paid coastal elites who adore him despite his dismal record in Ohio, will break with the good-old boy media fraternity and take it to one of their own.
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