MSNBC’s Chris Matthews thinks Ohio Governor John Kasich should be Hillary’s running mate. Seriously, he said that with a straight face:
You know what I would like to see? I would like Hillary Clinton…I’d like to see her up about, five or ten points after her convention…er…going into her convention, which is the second convention, and picking John Kasich, and blowing everybody’s mind. Because that would just blow everybody’s mind. They’d say, you know, McCain talked about doing it, picking Joe Lieberman. The first person that comes along and says, you know what? I’m going to pick somebody of quality on the other side. We’re going to change this system, make it work. Just a thought. It probably won’t happen, but maybe it will stir something just by saying it.
Kasich continues to be the left’s favorite Republican — and why wouldn’t he be? He expanded Medicaid in Obama-esque fashion — circumventing his own legislature by using an obscure board to authorize the spending. Ohio’s governor put his tail between his legs and gave up on union reform and right-to-work when his polling numbers tanked after his blundered first attempt at it failed, and while Kasich boasts about cutting the personal income tax in the state, he has simultaneously raised a host of other taxes on things like fracking, e-cigarettes, and commercial activity — counterintuitively taxing things the state should be encouraging.
Opportunity Ohio recently reported some troubling statistics about Kasich’s exploding budgets:
- From Governor Kasich’s first year to his proposed sixth year, Ohio’s budget will grow by 40.14%.
- The projected budgetary growth under Governor Kasich would outstrip every gubernatorial tenure since 1991 by 15 percentage points.
- Unless spending slows and/or revenues exceed the average growth since 2001, Ohio will begin running deficits in 2016.
In Thursday’s Wall Street Journal Peggyn Noonan said of Kasich, “I don’t know if he knows where the base is, but he seems to know where America is.” If Noonan thinks America is going to defy the results of the last two presidential elections and suddenly vote Democrat-lite, then Kasich is the GOP’s guy. Or the Democrats’ guy. Either way.