Ohio Governor John Kasich, who's pouting because he didn't beat Trump for the GOP presidential nomination. Hey, at least he got to be a chronically misogynist foodie while he was at it, though. He seemed like he was enjoying that.
It was this time last year that we shared our first “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profile of Ohio Governor John Kasich, who we said at the time was the moderate* candidate in the GOP Presidential primary field, with the asterisk denoting how whenever Kasich supposedly had a moderate position, you could find either a quote to contradict that supposed moderate stance, or the fact that it only meant he wasn’t as extreme as the other 16 nuts in the field, but was still pretty far to the right. I mean, during the Clinton administration, John Kasich twice voted for government shutdowns. He still defends the lie that he told to justify that action to this day, and never delivered on his promise to “change parties an become a Democrat if the Clinton economic plan didn’t steer the economy into a ditch” that he had said at the time. Instead, he respected the Clinton ecoomy by voting to impeach President Clinton for his affair with Monica Lewinsky. McCain spent six long yeasr Ffrom 2001 to 2007 as a forgettable FOX News anchor, hosting the show Heartland, spending a lot of that time working a second job for the Lehman Brothers, earning somewhere between $140-500K a year (depending on bonuses) until the banking giant declared bankruptcy. Perhaps John Kasich’s views on censorship are not the best to look to, as he once tried having his local Blockbuster video ban the movie Fargo because he was so offended by the “wood chipper scene”, as he admitted in a 2006 book.
Since becoming the Governor of Ohio, Kasich signed a sweeping anti-union law to limit the collective bargaining rights of public workers. It ended up being repealed when Ohio citizens signed a petition to put it on the public ballot, to sidestep what Kasich and his allies in the legislature had done. In his February 2012, Kasich gives his “state of the state” speech in Ohio, and discusses going to a research facility where Parkinson’s patients are receiving experimental treatments. In a less-than-sensitive moment, he begins physically shaking to demonstrate what those afflicted with the disease look like and in the same speech, he also offered this energy policy, that included the thought, “We’re the Saudi Arabia of coal. Clean it and burn it. Clean it, Gordon, and burn it. Clean it, Battelle, and burn it. Use it.” So… yeah, Kasich leadership is not so good for the environment. Gov. Kasich’s record on voting rights has been abysmal, spurring a slew of lawsuits from advocacy groups, including his attempts at voter suppression in Ohio in May 2012 that would have limited absentee ballots. Kasich’s efforts to curtail statistically non-existent “voter fraud” through stricter ID laws, and cutting back the number of early voting days would seem to only rig the system to prevent participation in our democracy. John Kasich signed one of the most aggressive anti-choice laws in our country’s modern history on July 3rd, 2013, which featured a myriad of measures restrictive to women including medically unnecessary, mandatory ultrasounds for any woman seeking an abortion, the doctor providing the service to read a pre-written anti-choice speech to the patient, preventing rape crisis centers from mentioning abortion, stripping Planned Parenthood of most of its funding, redefining pregnancy, and forcing doctors at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at a hospital or be shut down, which closed seven of the sixteen clinics in the state (and yes, that last part was by design). (It was actually overturned by the courts two months after our profile.)
Under Gov. Kasich’s leadership, police departments in Ohio have been at the forefront of several news stories about brutality against citizens, including various incidents resulting in the death of citizens. Amongst those killed include Samuel Debose, John Crawford, Tamir Rice, Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. Kasich has done little in response, only laying out an executive order that said that lethal force should not be an option to be used against a fleeing suspect*. (*WOW. What a concession. That’s sort of already the law, John.) Kasich has otherwise dragged his feet on efforts by Ohio Democrats to require Ohio law enforcement to all have body cameras, in spite of the spate of high profile police killings that have occurred under his watch. (The kind that Officer Tensing, the killer of Samuel Debose was wearing. The same body camera that showed his claims of fearing for his life were false, and that he straight up murdered a man sitting behind the wheel.)
In June 2015, Kasich expressed his “disappointment” at the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage. When LGBT advocates still began asking if Ohio would do something to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation, since you can be fired for being gay in Ohio, Kasich was quoted as saying, “Let’s not create problems where there frankly is none- or very little.”
Once he was in the presidential race, Kasich did not want to be left behind by some of the more xenophobic rhetoric coming from people like Ted Cruz or Donald Trump about immigrants, so he decided to publicly state his opposition to birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants born in the United States, and the repeal of the 14th Amendment. His stance on immigration, frankly, has been all over the road, varying from that extreme to saying he supports solutions that could include amnesty.
But now, we will review the past year, and talk about how John Kasich ate his way across the country while running for president, apparently biding his time by pretending to be the star of a Food Network show about our nation’s small-town eateries and expecting that at some point, the GOP primary voting electorate would look at options worthy of a drop kick like Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, and Donald Trump and go, "UGH, Okay, fine. I guess Kasich.” Here are some of the finer details of that campaign, in particular noting how frequently Kasich had unforced errors in the form of misogynistically speaking to women in a condescending manner:
- August 19th, 2015: John Kasich already has a pretty dicey relationship with Ohio teachers, and it didn’t get much better after he was recorded confessing that if it were up to him, he would abolish teacher’s lounges, altogether.
- September 18th, 2015: On the campaign trail in Iowa, Gov. Kasich tries his hand about voter outreach towards Hispanics, a demographic the GOP has been struggling with, by talking about how nice the Hispanic maid that cleaned his hotel the previous night was. So nice… he actually tipped her. Needless to say, this did not win him any new friends.
- October 2nd, 2015, Kasich plays dumb on climate change again, saying he “just doesn’t know enough about it” to do anything. That’s a pretty lazy response, considering he could, y'know, READ ABOUT IT at any point, and how many environmental scientists say it’s a crisis of our lifetimes.
- October 5th, 2015: John Kasich is speaking at the University of Richmond, and a girl in the audience asks him about what his immigration policy will be like. He seemed to try and blow the young woman off, making a joke at her expense and belittling her inquiry by telling her, “I’m sorry, I don’t have any tickets to Taylor Swift.” The student was non-plussed (and not just because she’s not a Taylor Swift fan).
- November 4th, 2015: While campaigning in Dubuque, Iowa, a prospective female voter asked Gov. Kasich about how he had managed to do reasonably well in balancing Ohio’s state budget, and he man-splained how to her by asking her, “Have you ever been on a diet?”
- February 22nd, 2016: At a town hall in Fairfax, Virginia, Kasich harkens back to the good old days, boasting about how women used to “leave their kitchens” to campaign for him.
- March 30th, 2016: At a CNN town hall, Kasich inexplicably starts hitting on a questioner in response to her question of who he might pick as a vice-presidential running mate, asking her, “Are you available? You look great tonight.“
- April 1st, 2016: Gov. Kasich is speaking in a town hall and is bragging about his record as governor, touting several positive statistics. Oddly, he brings up the infant mortality rate not being as high as he would like, and lays the blame squarely on… minorities:
Critics responded by pointing out that Kasich had cut funding to Planned Parenthood and several other health programs that helped young mothers and their children.
- April 15th, 2016: At a town hall in Waterton, Pennsylvania, Kasich is asked by a female audience member what policies he might enact to curtail the growing number of sexual assaults on college campuses to make her feel safer on campus, and he responds by advising her to ”not drink at parties“. This revealed that in Kasich’s mind, the onus of preventing assault is entirely on the victim.
- May 4th, 2016: John Kasich finally… FINALLY announces he is dropping out of the 2016 presidential race. He is the last Trump opponent to concede defeat. He only ever won his home state of Ohio, and finished second in ten of the other forty-nine states for an overall fourth place finish.
- July 16th, 2016: Kasich reneges on his pledge to support the Republican Party’s nominee from months earlier, stubbornly refusing to attend the Republican National Convention to endorse Donald Trump, or speak in any way.
- July 18th, 2016: Prior to the Republican National Convention, the Cleveland Police Union made a public plea to John Kasich to suspend open carry gun laws during the convention for safety concerns. Kasich ignored them, risking gun violence from some very volatile individuals.
- July 21st, 2016: Gov. Kasich’s staff decide to not just abstain from the RNC, but they leak out a news story to hurt Donald Trump’s chances in the election, as well as the idea that Indiana Governor Mike Pence was Trump’s first choice for a running mate. A Kasich aide told members of the media that one of Donald Trump’s sons called them, and asked if Kasich would like to ”become the most powerful vice-president in history“. They asked for more information about what that would mean, and were told that Kasich would "handle all domestic and all foreign policy”. When they asked what Trump would do, they were told Trump would be busy working to “Make America Great Again”. Needless to say they did not take them up on the offer.
John Kasich is currently busy sucking lemons to further embitter him, and has not made much of a peep since the Republican National Convention, as the Trump campaign has gone into meltdown. He faces term limits in 2018, and it is uncertain if he has any plans to do anything but be a lame duck for a whole two years, now that his presidential hopes have been dashed. Face it, Kasich, America’s just not that into you. Move on, already.
One Year Ago, August 19th, 2015: John Kasich (OH) Original Profile
Two Years Ago, August 19th, 2014: Joe Wurzelbacher (OH)
