What happened to Kasich?

[Lyin' Steve]

Let's face it, the dude's not doing well.  He's polling 2-4% nationally, about on par with Christie, Paul, and Huckabee, each of whom has been thought to be close to dropping out at one point or another.  He's all-in on New Hampshire, but it seems like he already peaked at 10% and now he's dwindling.  His last debate performance was nervous and awkward and cringeworthy.  He can't stand up straight and reuses lines.  And I haven't heard anything about him, good or bad, in the media at all.  He hasn't put out any position papers.  I never hear about campaign events or rallies for him.

It's frustrating because he should be doing much better.  He's the guy who actually balanced the budget!  He was a creative, innovative, and effective conservative governor!  He was on the House Armed Services committee for almost two decades!  He wrote mountains of impactful legislation!

I expected Kasich to blitz out of the gate with a folksy campaign driven by a regular schedule of creative, technically adept proposals and based on the rock-solid foundation of his record.  Instead what we've gotten is an awkward guy who just repeats the basics of his record over and over without having really any new ideas except for his unnaturally moderate stances on key issues.

What is he doing?  What happened?  Can he turn it around?

[Kingpoleon]

What happened?

He is merely turning his image into a positive one in New Hampshire by being one of the best-liked people running there. He's trying to get the image in Iowa he has in N. H. so he can get third or fifth in Iowa and then hit the ground running into New Hampshire.

His experienced team is what is giving him an easy path, but one misstep could turn backers to Christie or Paul(since he has a great amount of young people) or Bush or Rubio.

[HillOfANight]

He's not exciting. He was defending the Iran deal during the last debate, which I think is great since I support it, but GOP doesn't like it.

[Maxwell]

The second debate showed the same lackadaisical and boring performance from John Kasich, and I think people are bothered by how egotistical he is (even for a politician). He did have momentum, admittedly, but I think his movement is beginning to stall.

I will say, however, he's probably a better candidate and has better people than Jeb Bush (compare Jeb's Super PAC ad versus Kasich's helicopter ad and its really no comparison whose campaign isn't thinking and whose campaign is).

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

He has mistakenly run in the wrong decade.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

he never had a chance, mostly because he appealed to atlas's Very Serious People instead of republican primary voters

[Republican Michigander]

I'm not ready to dismiss Kasich. I've seen a lot more work done from him than I have some of the other candidates.

If these are January numbers, then I'll take notice. September doesn't matter all that much.

[Likely Voter]

It's tough out there for those in the 'governing wing'.   Of that group, he is not doing too bad considering he started out polling behind people who aren't even qualifying for the debates or have dropped out.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

he never had a chance, mostly because he appealed to atlas's Very Serious People instead of republican primary voters

Fundamentally, this is the truth. It's a known rule that the candidate most attractive to Atlasites, is almost certainly doomed in the dog-catcher van full of rabid mutts, known as the GOP primary.

Rash, reactionary and simple now trumps (lol) sensible, rational and thoughtful (and it's not like Kasich is objectively moderate ... He's just not certifiable).

[Maxwell]

And Kasich wasn't exactly the most reasonable, sensible, or thoughtful person of the field when he governed - he just somehow thinks being Jon Huntsman 2.0 except with a bunch of references to god is how you win a GOP primary.

[Torie]

Oh, in time, as Trump and Carson fade away, and assuming Bush fades away, then the sane part of the party can evaluate Rubio, Kasich and maybe even Christie as a long shot, and pick the best out of the lot based on their performance. So it is way too early to write Kasich off, but yes, he needs to perform better, and with more discipline and specifics, and less distracting body movements, then he has so far. Feel good generalities is simply not good enough. It's not good enough really for any of the candidates.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

This isnt the year for GOP, obviously, and the regular GOPers that should be winning primaries should, aren't that's why Jeb and Kasich arent performing better.

The Fed is on the cusp of raising interest rates, & economy has improved in order for a Dem to be elected.

[Torie]

This isnt the year for GOP, obviously, and the regular GOPers that should be winning primaries should, aren't that's why Jeb and Kasich arent performing better.

The Fed is on the cusp of raising interest rates, & economy has improved in order for a Dem to be elected.

How will raising interest rates help a Dem to be elected?

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

The ec.onomy is getting all the time and its only a matter of time when the economy breakd lose and grow at 3 percent Growth

[Orser67]

Eh? If anything Kasich has been doing well the last couple months.

[Fuzzy Says: "Abolish NPR!"]

This part of the campaign is, very much, for the base.  Kasich will not do well at it.  Given the level of desire for "an outsider", coupled with the broadening of the definition "outsider", Kasich's normal strengths (breadth and depth of experience, support from an incredibly key state, ability to appeal to moderate independents) aren't working for him here.  He's sort of got a claim of it being "his turn", but it's not as literal as, say, McCain's or Romney's, and Jeb Bush has cut in line on that one.

If the fundamental structure of the GOP race doesn't change, what will have to happen to stop Donald Trump is for the Establishment to make a deal with one of the anti-Establishment candidates, even Ted Cruz.  If the structure of the race shifts away from this to where, say, 30% or so of the GOP populace are demanding an outsider,  Kasich could well make his move.  A Kasich-Fiorina ticket might just be the ticket to beat (although I think Fiorina's real liabilities will bring her down, and she doesn't have Trump's money).  The real problem for Kasich is that the GOP is more reluctant to "get real" than ever before.  This is a GOP that could well nominate a Trump or a Cruz and lose the Electoral College by over 400 EV.

[Averroës Nix]

You know, if I were a voter reading this thread at home, I'd be inclined to close the tab.

Actually, the fact that he's not in Graham/Jindal/Pataki territory is a minor victory. Who knows, a month from today, he may be outpolling Jeb - if not nationally, then at least in NH.

[NeverAgain]

You know, if I were a voter reading this thread at home, I'd be inclined to close the tab.

Actually, the fact that he's not in Graham/Jindal/Pataki territory is a minor victory. Who knows, a month from today, he may be outpolling Jeb - if not nationally, then at least in NH.

Considering the fact that Jeb could drop out in the next week, that won't be hard.

[Torie]

This part of the campaign is, very much, for the base.  Kasich will not do well at it.  Given the level of desire for "an outsider", coupled with the broadening of the definition "outsider", Kasich's normal strengths (breadth and depth of experience, support from an incredibly key state, ability to appeal to moderate independents) aren't working for him here.  He's sort of got a claim of it being "his turn", but it's not as literal as, say, McCain's or Romney's, and Jeb Bush has cut in line on that one.

If the fundamental structure of the GOP race doesn't change, what will have to happen to stop Donald Trump is for the Establishment to make a deal with one of the anti-Establishment candidates, even Ted Cruz.  If the structure of the race shifts away from this to where, say, 30% or so of the GOP populace are demanding an outsider,  Kasich could well make his move.  A Kasich-Fiorina ticket might just be the ticket to beat (although I think Fiorina's real liabilities will bring her down, and she doesn't have Trump's money).  The real problem for Kasich is that the GOP is more reluctant to "get real" than ever before.  This is a GOP that could well nominate a Trump or a Cruz and lose the Electoral College by over 400 EV.

The GOP establishment hates Cruz. Everyone in the Senate loathes him. He is not going anywhere.

[DrScholl]

Nothing happened to him, because he never got any traction.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

he never had a chance, mostly because he appealed to atlas's Very Serious People instead of republican primary voters

Fundamentally, this is the truth. It's a known rule that the candidate most attractive to Atlasites, is almost certainly doomed in the dog-catcher van full of rabid mutts, known as the GOP primary.

Rash, reactionary and simple now trumps (lol) sensible, rational and thoughtful (and it's not like Kasich is objectively moderate ... He's just not certifiable).

oh, i meant this in the opposite sense, ie kasich is boring as fųck and doesn't appeal to normal people

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

You know, if I were a voter reading this thread at home, I'd be inclined to close the tab.

Actually, the fact that he's not in Graham/Jindal/Pataki territory is a minor victory. Who knows, a month from today, he may be outpolling Jeb - if not nationally, then at least in NH.

Considering the fact that Jeb could drop out in the next week, that won't be hard.

Explain this.

[cinyc]

The GOP establishment hates Cruz. Everyone in the Senate loathes him. He is not going anywhere.

And the GOP base hates the GOP establishment.  Ergo...

Atlas severely underestimates how much the Republican base doesn't support candidates who helped Obama implement Obamacare in Ohio by expanding Medicaid.

[TJ in Oregon]

I would say his major problem is that voters care more right now about speaking ability than resumes. Kasich has accomplished a lot and is a great governor of Ohio. Still, when he stands at a podium he comes off as awkward and unpolished compared to the others on the national stage. He hasn't interrupted people much and hasn't demonstrated why his brand of conservatism is the best choice to fix America's problems.

No, it's not ideological, at least not most of it.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

Nothing, this board just had a strange fascination with Kasich