John Kasich: The John Huntsman Of 2016

by JASmius



Is this something?  Eh.  I suppose it might be if John Kasich had a better chance of winning the 2016 GOP presidential nomination than the Seattle Mariners do of getting another hit out of the infield.

One good thing about it is that it means there's one more avowed RINO to further drag down Jeb Bush and give Scott Walker a fighting chance to shake off his own horde of ankle-biting conservative pretenders to emerge from the pack first:

Ohio governor John Kasich has yet to enter the presidential race, but his reported talks with Republican strategist John Weaver, even before the Washington Post reported Tuesday that he would serve as a senior strategist for the campaign, were already raising some eyebrows…

“Perception is reality,” said one Iowa political consultant. “If that’s his first hire, then yeah. It’s not going to speak well, and news of that will spread quickly” from people who are familiar with [Weaver’s] record of skipping the Hawkeye State…

“It sends the wrong signal. You may see the bat signal in the sky, and you may not know where Batman’s going but you know there’s trouble somewhere. And this would just be a giant bat signal that he’s not going to aggressively compete in Iowa,” the consultant added.

It's worse than that.  John Weaver is a walking extended RINO middle finger to the GOP's Tea Party base.  He's the RINO's RINO.  He's the RINOiest RINO you'll ever see, hear, or meet.  And he loathes each and every one of us rightwingers with a flaming, fiery passion.  You know when you guys rage on about "establishment cockroaches"?  Next to that term in the political dictionary, it has a picture of John Weaver.  He's not Donk Lite, he's Donk heavy.  I have no idea what he's doing in the Republican Party other than as a leftwingnut mole.  He was Jon Huntsman's (Who?) campaign manager last go-round, for heaven's sake.

And now he's John Kasich's.  Which should tell you all you need to know about John Kasich.  Other than why he's bothering to tilt at the presidential windmill.

Allahpundit's theories, summarized, in ascending order of likelihood:

1) Kasich wants to flip off conservatives with even more fingers and gusto than Weaver;

2) Kasich recognizes Jeb Bush's weakness (as Bush III evidently does not) and is going hardcore RINO to tap enough "establishment" cash to outflank Jeb as their candidate, and failing that, at least get on his veep short list.

Assuming, that is, that he doesn't trip up Jeb enough to let Scott Walker zoom past him.  In which case, he's toast.

But then, he's toast anyway, because if Jeb did get the nomination (God most definitely forbid), you know he'd tap Senator Rubio as his running mate.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that Marco Rubio has the #2 spot on the ticket wrapped up no matter who the nominee is.

Governor Kasich will figure this out.  Eventually.  After he's made John Weaver an ever richer man.

Wonder what St. Peter will have to say about that.