http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/07/ohio_gov_john_kasich_runs_the.html
Ohio Gov. John Kasich runs the risk of being perceived as a jerk: Brent Larkin
Gov. John Kasich thinks he's normal.
Defying a mountain of evidence to the contrary, Kasich recently told voters in New Hampshire the reason many view him as "unorthodox" is actually, "Because I'm normal."
Kasich is many things. Normal isn't one of them.
In fact, as Kasich prepares to run for president, expect more people to suggest in public what many who know him have been whispering in private for years.
Indelicate though it may be, it's a question worth asking:
Is John Kasich too big a jerk to be president?
Some in the national media have already raised the issue, with various degrees of sensitivity. The list includes Politico, the National Journal and NBC News.
The NBC report left nothing to the imagination. A June 11 story about Kasich, written by reporter Perry Bacon Jr., began this way:
"He could be a top contender for the GOP nomination. But first, he might want to get people to stop calling him a jerk."
The story went on to report what political insiders have known for years — that Kasich's grating style "is known to be brusque, confrontational and dismissive of others' views, even fellow conservatives."
It also quoted Fred Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard and a powerful voice in Republican politics, as saying that if Kasich is to win the GOP nomination for president, he will have to stop "acting somewhat like a jerk."
That version of John Kasich was on full display in Columbus on June 26.
When talking about tax cuts in the new state budget, Kasich found a way, within the span of a just 39 words, to belittle every one of his six immediate predecessors.
As reported by The Columbus Dispatch, Kasich said this:
"John Gilligan raised taxes. Jim Rhodes raised taxes. Dick Celeste raised taxes. George Voinovich raised taxes. Bob Taft raised taxes. Ted Strickland raised taxes. Why? Not conservative with their [revenue] estimates, not controlling spending, not creating a business-friendly environment."
In Columbus, political insiders from both parties, but especially Republicans, were appalled. What he said was classless. It was nauseating. It was narcissistic. And it was factually wrong.
First, "controlling spending" didn't enable Kasich to cut taxes. Spending on state government has increased on his watch.
What enabled him to cut taxes was a surge in revenue experienced by Ohio and 49 other states as the nation recovered from the worst recession in 80 years — a recession triggered, in part, by the firm he worked for at the time, Lehman Brothers.
Foremost, Kasich was able to avoid raising taxes after taking office in 2011 only by making devastating cuts in state funding to local governments and schools.
And how did many of those school districts and local governments offset those draconian cuts made by the governor and his legislature?
By raising taxes.
In his attack on six former governors, two of whom are dead and unable to defend themselves, consider Kasich's twisted logic for including Strickland on his list of taxers: With the national economy collapsing, Strickland postponed the final year of a planned income tax cut. By not cutting taxes because a Republican president had driven the economy into a ditch, Ohio's Republican governor has decided Strickland's move qualified as a tax increase.
No wonder people find Kasich so off-putting. It's one thing to embellish one's own record; Kasich is a master at that. It's borderline despicable to twist the facts to disparage those who held the same office.
All six of those governors went through periods when a national downturn in the economy wreaked havoc with the state budget. Kasich has been fortunate to enjoy an economy Daffy Duck could manage.
National Journal reporter Michelle Cottle has described Kasich's "trademark rants" as "emotional, self-important and littered with shameless name-dropping."
Another National Journal reporter, Josh Kraushaar, Tweeted about Kasich on June 10 that he "met several potential supporters of his in NH [New Hampshire] who said they liked him less after meeting w [with] him one on one. That's rare in NH."
And a June story in Politico told of how about 20 people walked out of the room in disgust last year after Kasich snapped at Randy Kendrick, wife of Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick, during a Southern California conference sponsored by billionaire Republican donors Charles and David Koch.
When Kendrick asked Kasich why he describes his expansion of Medicaid in Ohio as something God wanted, Kasich replied by pointing at Kendrick and, his voice rising, saying, "I don't know about you, lady. But when I get to the Pearly Gates, I'm going to have an answer for what I've done for the poor."
That same Politico story told how, in early June, Kasich became indignant when a donor had the audacity to suggest that the governor may have waited too long to officially become a candidate for president.
Kasich angrily shot back, "You don't know what you're talking about."
Reports of Kasich mistreating people — especially those whose stations in life might not be as lofty — have been out there for years. But the closer one gets to the presidency, the greater the media scrutiny becomes. If Kasich begins to climb in the polls, expect to hear from some of those waiters, waitresses and other service employees with grievances. Temperament is a legitimate issue in a campaign for the White House.
If Kasich can persuade voters to look past his odious personality and elect him president, it will be a win for the ages.
Don't bet on it.
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