Like Dole’s Kemp Pick, Only Not

By Kleinheider Posted on July 14, 2008 at 7:21 am

The case is made for a McCain darkhorse Veep choice:

Which brings us to John Kasich. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll unabashedly admit that I prefered Kasich over Bush and McCain in 2000. The main reason why is because he’s a fiscal hawk. He was proposing balanced budgets during Bush 41’s term in office. At that time, people thought we’d never see another balanced budget. That changed the minute Kasich became the House Budget Committee Chair in 1995. It isn’t coincidence that 2 short years later, we were running surpluses.

Another appealing thing about Kasich is that he’s got a strong record of working across the aisle with sensible liberals. His offering of balanced budgets with Tim Penny is the perfect example of his principled bipartisanship.

Yet another thing working in John Kasich’s favor is that he’s a plain-spoken idealist. His story of being a mail-carrier’s son growing up in Youngstown, OH is compelling. Think of Kasich as the GOP’s answer to Tim Russert. Russert and Kasich both made their mark in Washington, DC but they never forgot where they were from. They both knew the perils blue collar workers faced because they’d been there. That’s something that will play well in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

The other plus that Kasich has going for him is that he’s just plain likeable. That quality should never be underestimated.

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