Debateable Impressions: Walter Rising
By Mitch Berg
Up next: John Kasich.
What the conservative pundocracy says: Kasich kept himself in the running with a strong, if cranky, performance. Others point to his fairly bald-faced, McCainish up-sucking to the media.
What I say: My short list, two months ago, was Walker, Jindal, Kasich. With Walker gone and Jindal mired in the undercard and barely running a campaign, it looks like Kasich is the last man standing. He gave a strong showing last night. But am I the only one who saw his cranky demeanor and though about Jeff Dunham’s puppet-character “Walter”?
Verdict: Let’s hope he can morph into something other than the campaign’s resident senior scold.
October 29th, 2015 at 9:25 pm
Kasich/Rubio (or vice versa) = winning Ohio and Florida.
October 30th, 2015 at 10:21 am
I had the same short list Mitch did however since Walker left the race, I’ve been strongly considering Marco Rubio even though he isn’t a governor. A Kasich/Rubio ticket would have a strong geographic advantage but it could also be a repeat of Dole/Kemp where the bottom half of the ticket was seen as more dynamic than the top.
Also I think Kasich has not done his campaign any favors when his attacks on the other candidates’ policy proposals were apparently used by Democrats in their fundraising efforts. If Romney couldn’t go after ObamaCare because of the health care bill he signed into law for Massachusetts, Kasich could have a tough time campaigning on entitlement reform, repealing ObamaCare, overhauling the tax code or fixing our immigration system when his comments can be seen as demonizing efforts to do the same.