Kasich weasels out

This would have been an interesting race. But ...

"There is no path right now for me. I don't see a way to get there," said former governor John Kasich today about a 2020 challenge to Trump…. "Ninety percent of the Republican Party supports him. It may be a shrinking Republican Party, but nevertheless. Maybe somebody wants to run and make a statement and that's fine, but I've never gotten involved in a political race where I didn't think I could win."

My guess is that 90 percent of the Republican Party supports Trump only because the president has no competition. In February a Monmouth University poll found that 43 percent of Republicans would like to see Trump primaried, although the same poll found that Trump would "trounce" any competitor.

But for all-American Kasich, is that really the point? I've lost track of the times I've heard Kasich express the sentiment that the country should come first, and then the party (and by extension, any candidate). Thus his primary potential should be as secondary to Kasich as the party.

He's right that it would be "fine" if "somebody wants to run and make [an anti-Trump] statement" — the GOP's future depends on a multitude of independent thinkers and disaffected activism — and Kasich is probably the supreme Republican choice to do just that. Yet he's more worried about his loss column than the nation's or his party's well-being.

I've always suspected that John Kasich's fate is the most critical question lying before John Kasich — a down-home demagogue at heart. And now we know it for a fact.

Comments

[Max]

Meh, I would go easier on Kasich. He never stood a chance. Who doesn't know that? We have a deficit of grand, empty gestures? Running in the primaries against Trump is the definition of grueling punishment. So I don't blame him.

So a third of the Republican voters are liars (News at Eleven), when 90% support Trump and 43% say Trump should be primaried. They'll support Trump having a primary opponent - and then vote for Trump in the primaries. This is all sound and fury, signifying nothing.

[Freesia]

The only Republican who could successfully primary Trump has to be somebody who is as foul and dirty as Trump, openly racist with a tawdry experience or two that they don't run from but openly embrace. Only this person would have a wicked sense of humor and a below the belt response to Trump, and an even louder mouth. Basically a WWE sort of match up to thrill the same rubes that Trump appeals to. Basically somebody shameless.

Without that set of "qualifications" he'd just eat his opponent alive. Kasich wouldn't bring the nasty required. That's where the 80 or so in the last primary went wrong. They didn't get down in the mud with him.

[Max]

Even that may not be enough. That I pray that Felix Sater is right, "Trump will die in prison," does not mean for now he is a savant.

[Max]

Admittedly OT but needed for a host (and many commenters) who support Joe Biden: How about that sleazy attack on Joe from that preening narcissist Corey Booker yesterday, on the 1994 Crime Bill? The attack the left undoubtedly are eating up.

The Crime Bill had some bad stuff - but also good stuff. And it was at a time the crime rate was soaring. Here is a real take on this:

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/05/raw-data-mass-incarceration-and-the-1994-crime-bill/

Gee, it turns out the biggest reason for the escalation in the prison population was the escalation in crime. And recall the Crime Bill was supported by St. Bernie, the Congressional Black Caucus and the Council of Mayors.

Kevin Drum has been on quite a roll lately; he is a must-read.

[shsavage]

"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it." -- incorrectly attributed to Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, Abraham Lincoln, and a host of others.

[Freesia]

I was struck by this: "(b) included some bad ideas at the insistence of Republicans,". Always.

Went on to read an article by Clarence Page in the Chicago Tribune who advised Biden to embrace his vote, not run from it. I think that's a wise strategy. There were good things in the bill as you say. And he didn't pass it by his lonesome.

The Corey Booker thing worries me. This is not an election where the Democrats, especially the "More Progressive Than Thou Purists" can go on vanity side trips. The stakes are too high. And I wish Biden would take on St. Bernie early. We can't have a repeat of his cult's damage campaign of 2016.

Do you think the Democrats are going to feast on each other in the primary or do they see the stakes?

[Ed Doerr]

Booker already is getting desperate. He has done all the right things in his life, but it turns out that nobody wants him. He is polling at 2% or less, and like all of them with similar polling, he's unlikely to make it as far as even the first primary. It's too bad, but the sooner that about 15 of them drop out, the better it is for the Dems.

[Freesia]

I think Booker would do better to set his sights on being a governor. I'm not sure why, something about his personality and the way he is with people that he would be better at being a governor than a president. I could be wrong but just a feeling.

And yes they need to winnow that field. Pare it down to the ones that likely won't win but would be good for sharpening up the debates.

[Max]

Booker had his nose stuck up Betsy DeVos' ass for years . . . right up until she became Secretary of Education. He threw in with the anti-public education crowd, so he is loathed by actual educators. Self-righteous hypocrite and the walking definition of lightweight.

[AnneJ]

Today's holier than thou liberals have no concept of the context of time. If I can recall the crime bill was very popular among all sides back then because high crime rates were a big problem for a very long time. It's no use judging the past by the standards of the present.

[Mary]

Absolutely. Don't give Trump any easy victories. A convincing put down of an unworthy opponent would give the insufferable man even more bragging rights.

[Freesia]

I don't think I explained it right. What I meant is somebody who does low class bully nasty even better than him. He is such a wuss that somebody who plays his game even better could conceivably succeed in a primary and reduce him to pathetic flailing. And then (hopefully) go on to lose. But in a GOP primary somebody who can out Trump Trump. But I believe that's the only type of primary opponent who could sway the base that the GOP has carefully cultivated and are stuck with.

[Mary]

Freesia, I kind of recognise you. Have you been here before or is it my over-active imagination?

[Mary]

Welcome back. You have been missed.

Freesia, if you have no idea what I'm talking about...never mind.

[Peter G]

I am glad to see you both. And this piece is one where I see the merits of both sides. But I lean towards the views expressed by Max. Trump would probably love to have a whole bunch of baby seals to club to death in a primary. It probably was a very significant factor in winning the election in the first place. He looked like a winner after trouncing his Republican opponents. And he knows if this happened again the losers would be happy to lick his boots.

[Peter G]

Convergence to the political mean. Booker is like every other politician with that ultimate of ambitions. He adopted policy positions that he believed offered the broadest political support. And now he is just one of a crowd.

[Freesia]

I started posting here over the past month or so. Before that I only read PM's posts but didn't join the discussion. Years ago I posted frequently at Huffington Post so you may recognize my name from there if you were a regular there.

? Reading your post below. I'm confused. Have I done something wrong? I didn't mean to.

[jsrtheta]

I'm not sure how declining to sacrifice oneself for a preordained loss, costing millions in the process, is "weaseling out".

[Mary]

Absolutely nothing wrong at all. I mistook you for somebody else but on reflection there were discrepancies. I'm not surprised that you're confused. Apologies to you.

[Max]

After seeing Bill Weld on Bill Maher last Friday night, I am revising my opinion: running against Trump in the primaries is potentially good, although not major. Weld attacked Trump the way the Democrats ought to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trTaGWJrQMU

Having Bill Weld so effectively cutting Trump a new on out on the campaign trail will feel rewarding. All the more reason, by the way, to delay impeachment so that the trial takes place when the campaign is more on.

Weld is so much more effective than Kaisch anyway; this is better. And thanks to Weld for subjecting himself to this.

[Freesia]

No worries. I understand now :-)