As three Republican Presidential candidates traded insults during last night's GOP Presidential debate, even to the point of the occasional penis reference, there was really only one adult in the room. It certainly wan't the hooting and hollering audience, or a media intent on playing along in the tit-for-tat exchanges of the three teenagers. But when moderator Chris Wallace tried to draw adult John Kasich into the smear fest with a question asking him whether Donald Trump is naive about Putin, Kasich had the best answer of the night.
"I'm not biting,'" he said, refusing to play along with the dumbed down exchange. He then delivered a very clear message on how the United States should deal with the Russian bear and other aspects of foreign policy. Of the four, he seemed like the only one who actually understood the subject.
Kasich, incidentally, grew up in a small Pa. town. He's the son of a mailman and the grandson of coal miners and has a Slavic background.
If he can hold on until the northern states begin their voting, he might pull off an upset.
48 comments:
Kasich was my pick of the clown bus from day 1. Is there a chance the Republican party could actually him? Maybe 5%?
You're a smarter man than I. If I were to declare a winner, it would be him.
Another attempt to bolster Dent's cowardly pick? You are so transparent. Dent and Kasich deserve each other, they are both irrelevant to the modern Republican Party.
Kasich could unify the party & win the general
Rubio acted like a desperate child, trump was, well trump. cruz continues to say the same thing over and over. Kasich was the only grown up in the room. The moderators were lackluster and Kelly seemed to be really enjoying herself attacking.
I love watching the Republican Party get destroyed by the monster they created. Only problem is that it is also harming the whole nation. Trump is the ultimate result of the whole corporate funded Tea Party movement that has transitioned into nativism and racism. You reap who you sow. I will post anonymous because I don't need the static from the mindless Faux News syncophants and right wing loons that often post here. Unleash the trolls!
While I like Kasich it is clear is is able to be "above the fray" because he is below the threshold of seriousness as a candidate. The last thing Republican voters want is another mushy establishment candidate. We should all understand that by now.
Scott Armstrong
In their own word, threw liars an a normal guy. A big tent for clowns.
7:08 gets it. The NYC clown has no clothes.
is Hillary the monster the Democratic Party created or is it Bernie, or maybe both?
Scott Armstrong
Forget these debates serving as an opportunity to learn anything substantive. The media elite and their corporate masters are about ratings. The questions, time allotted for back and forth, baiting, and the panel ignoring Kasich for the most part, demonstrate FOX and others are interested in spectacle, not education.
________________
The Republican Party leadership is content to lose the White House again. They, and many Republicans in Congress are more fearful of CHANGE than they are of continuing the Obama Globalist agenda, a Hillary victory.
The strategy is clear. . . NO Donald Trump. Defeat him by rule at the National Convention. This election is not about the "will of the people." It's about keeping things neatly in line with ongoing political careers.
Our nation is being dissolved, democracy diminished. The people we've sent to Washington have turned their backs to the electorate. It's career over country, now.
Are you ready for DIFFERENT people in Congress?
Fred Windish
Kasich would be leading if the majority of the electorate needed a hug. It doesn't. It's pissed off at all politicians. Kasich is running for Treasury Secretary. He'd make a good one. He has no shot at the nomination.
In response to 7:08 -
What's happening is, the Republican Party members in office have given up the fight. The 2-party system is OVER. The Republican leadership is committing suicide of the party.
The Republicans are going to have great difficulty winning the next election, regardless who is their candidate. They don't seem to understand, Donald Trump is the strongest horse in the race. Sadly, to these fools, this isn't really about winning the Oval Office!
The Republican Party WILL lose in November with anyone but Trump as their candidate.
It's that simple.
Fred Windish
I live in a building that was once a contract shop for Warner Bra Company and operated by Cupid Manufacturing. The wood floors are refinished but still stained by the oil of the sewing machinery that assembled the foundation garments made here. It was hard work - eight-hour shifts, five days a week, unrelenting and with little more than a paycheck and the camaraderie among the workers evident in the cool graffiti still remaining and visible in the elevator shaft. Who would those employees have wanted from the remaining crop of four Republican candidates?
I'm e Southern Lehigh graduate from the early 1970s. Our after-school jobs included options like busing tables at the country club or working at the IGA on 309 or waiting tables at Trainer's. Those were hard jobs. Most of us went on to college and had pretty good careers. We're a mix of Democratic-leaning and conservative voters.
My younger nephew, on the other hand, wants to be a golf pro. He wears clothing made almost exclusively overseas, is terrified of big cities, and owns what I assume to be an American-made handgun. While we do not talk politics, I assume from his attitude and behavior to be not likely to have the compassion that either Clinton or Kasich have been demonstrating during their campaigns.
The opinions of the voters in this area I'm most interested in in the Lehigh Valley are the employees of the Sands, of LVHN and St. Luke's, and of Mack Trucks. They're the ones who are punching the clock, who are deeply embedded in service industries, and whose jobs are at risk of disappearing out of the area because of globalization.
I don't understand how we can make America great again if there is an expectation that our neighbors are going to be clock punching and operating heavy machinery without the promise of a good retirement, not us or or our kids.
I see no happy outcome in November. I see great danger ahead for the republic and for civil liberties.
You did not watch the debate as clearly as you say. If you did, you would know that Cruz did not insult anyone. His "attacks" were always on Trumps record. He kept it above the belt. Cannot say the same for Rubio and Trump. As for Kasich, if he tells us he was in Congress one more time, I'm gonna hurl.
7.08 sounds like a long term elected politician, anyone who can say that the tea party is a corporate funded entity is missing the point, that in the last few years more and more citizens are getting involved and watching their elected officials, while trump is an imperfect candidate, he is the result of the out of touch politicians from school board members to mayors and governors,to most all politicians in Washington. They all have the Marie Antoinette syndrome. More citizens have come to see the hypocrisy, corruption and elitist attitudes of the leadership of both parties and the media, If you say this is a bad thing, it is because you would prefer to keep the serfs under control.
Both pathetic parties talk about the middle class being so important, yet it is the middle class who ends up getting screwed, over and over. The middle class did not create these problems. The politicians created these problems.
The middle class is told constantly, by both parties,to sit down shut up and pay what ever taxes you are told to pay. If you are pissed off with paying more, you are deemed a hater of education, the poor, the infrastructure or anything else both parties can come up with. Nobody talks about the billions of tax payer cash wasted daily .People have no problem paying taxes, but when both parties continue to waste tax payer cash, people get pissed. this is nothing new. this has been happening for decades and decades. it is now catching up to us and we will pay the price thanks to our disgusting political parties who continue to use and abuse the middle class.
Trump Rubio, Cruz, Clinton or Sanders, does it really matter? Both parties have their candidate picked and both parties will make sure that candidate is nominated, no matter what the people, the primaries and the poll numbers have to say. Basically your vote doesn't count any more.
As long as the special interest groups/beast, get theirs from the middle class, that's all that matters. People could careless about a candidates character, morals or ethics. Its all about supporting the party.For what reason? Power and control?
The American govt /system is broken and dysfunctional.
To me it is sad that the 'average' voter who does not follow the news or let alone politics couldn't pick one of these candidates out of a lineup except for maybe Trumpet. They will wake up on election day and say to their spouse hey honey, is today Election Day? I don't know, I think so. Who do you think we should vote for? I don't know but I saw a pretty sign the other day for so-and-so and I might vote for him. Those are the types of people unfortunately who will decide the election, not the diehards who already know what candidate they are for or against.
You can fancy it up any way you want but Trump is still running as America's id candidate, playing to the base instincts and prejudices of the masses while playing them for fools at the same time.
@Scott Armstrong...Hillary Clinton is indeed the monster the Democratic establishment created years ago when they determined she was the entitled one. All she had to do was stay healthy and keep out of legal trouble and in their opinion the nomination to succeed Obama would be hers as many of them felt it should have already been in 2008. Bernie Sanders is the monster that the Democratic Party insiders wish never happened. He does however appeal to a large group of ideologically driven dreamers who are no more realistic than the opposite sort of dreamers on your side who respond positively to absurd proposals such as building a 50 foot high wall a thousand miles long or abolishing the IRS. About the only thing I can say as a ticket splitting centrist who feels most comfortable with either moderate Democrats or Republicans is that I share the anger of all the dreamers. There is not one candidate still running in either major party who I feel is a great choice to lead this nation forward.
Conservative brand is in trouble. The loudest voices of the GOP are the extremember right who think basic background checks are an infringement in their 2nd amendment and they think the Rebel flag trumPs the US Flag. Save the militaristic views and the misguided view that the rebel flag is not a patriotic symbol.
9:54 AM -
Our problem is much deeper. ALL citizens are in trouble, regardless of political party.
To those in office, you and I are just FLEAS ON A DOG. Our representatives in Congress (both parties) don't really care who sits in the White House or on the Supreme Court. Maintaining citizen protection inherent in having 3 co-equal branches of government no longer matters.
A new, selfish and hypocritical, ruling class has been created. Its members feel immune to any ill effects of bad government decisions. They just want to be left alone. WE (you and I) need to be brushed away!
Democracy is on life support.
Fred Windish
We're witnessing a rebound and resurgence of the Republican Party. It started two years ago when they took the Senate. It continues today with an influx of Democrats and Independents in open primary states. 20,000 Massachusetts Democrats switched parties to vote in the Republican primary. In the Obama years, Democrats have lost 70+ Congressional seats and 900+ state legislative seats. Republicans now have 31 governors. Democrats have just 11. Obama has pulled the Democratic Party to the extreme left, which explains the popularity of a guy running left of Hillary Clinton. Republicans have a growing chaos that is the result of lots of new voters, from Kasich and Pataki supporters on the left of the party, to Cruz and Carson on the right, to whatever the hell Trump is on a particular day. Will Rogers said he didn't belong to an organized party because he was a Democrat. Today, the tables have turned and his quote applies more so to Republicans.
** typo - Democrats have just 18 governor seats.
" The last thing Republican voters want is another mushy establishment candidate. We should all understand that by now. "
I don't consider Kasich a "mushy establishment candidate." That would be Rubio. I consider him an adult and the only candidate running - Democrat or Republican - - with a firm grasp on foreign policy. He was the default winner of the shouting match - I won't call it a debate - last night. There is an outside shot he could win. He was correct when he noted that the northern states have yet to weigh in. But he is behind in most of those states, so he needs to change that NOW. I doubt he can.
"You can fancy it up any way you want but Trump is still running as America's id candidate, playing to the base instincts and prejudices of the masses while playing them for fools at the same time. "
Unfortunately, I think he'll draw the independent vote and win the election. He is a faux populist.
"Unfortunately, I think he'll draw the independent vote and win the election. He is a faux populist."
Agree. But he's also drawing Democrats who've been abandoned by their party. His primary wins have been in open primary states. In 3 of 4 closed primaries, he's been defeated by Cruz.
Democrats are running a presumptive candidate who is under criminal investigation. That's likely why Bernie Sanders is hanging around, despite having any remote chance of winning enough delegates/superdelegates. He may yet get his shot.
Racism runs deep in Democratic history. It's easy to see why they like Trump. It's also easy to see why establishment Rs are upset with the influx of Trump-supporting Ds.
I was a Republican for a quarter century, coming of age during the Carter-Reagan years. Over those years, I voted almost exclusively for Republicans, except for John Glenn for Senate. Disillusioned with the small tent RINO hunting, and hyper-partisanship that has made compromise/governance such a dirty word for the likes of Hannity, Rush, and angry Tea Party folks, I switched thinking it might be easier to be a moderately conservative Dem than a center-right Repub. Well, I've switched back to support Kasich in the primary. I can't vote for Sanders, nor Clinton. However, if the GOP can't go back to the philosophy of Reagan ("I'd rather get 80% of what I want than go over the cliff with my flag flying high"), and be more welcoming of center-right folks, next stop is just registering as an independent. If the GOP can't keep the center-right, it will either implode or die a slow death. I don't even know if Reagan himself would be accepted by much of the current GOP. Unfortunately, those of us in the political middle America seemingly no longer have any party to land in.
Reagan couldn't get the nomination in today's Republican Party. John F. Kennedy couldn't get the nomination in today's Democratic Party. Times change.
If Lincoln was alive today, he probably would be a democrat.
"Well, I've switched back to support Kasich in the primary. "
I believe i will join you.
"Another attempt to bolster Dent's cowardly pick? You are so transparent. Dent and Kasich deserve each other, they are both irrelevant to the modern Republican Party. "
Dent's pick was actually courageous. He went against the patricians from within his own party. He is a careful thinker, and as usual, there is much merit in his positions.
Oh stop. Dent IS the patrician establishment. They are splitting between Rubio and Kasich. Rubio is slightly favored because he has performed slightly better (mostly because Kasich came in too late and never attempted to run a national campaign). Kasich's list of endorsements reads like a who's who of establishment Republicans.
12:08 PM
"If Lincoln was alive today, he probably would be a democrat."
Sounds about right, since at over two hundred years old, his brain would be a pile of mush.
I like Woodrow Wilson. He re-segregated the military and federal government because of his disdain for blacks and the outcome of the Civil War and reconstruction. He's a Democratic Party lion and schools and boroughs are named after him. It's remarkable that the same people appalled by David Duke are OK with things still named for Wilson.
12:48, Dent is a big boy, an adult in a world where common decency have gone by the wayside, including the common decency of saying who you are when you attack someone. Dent is a patrician, I agree, but is going contrary to the patrician establishment, which supports Rubio. And this post is not about Dent, although your hate keeps getting in the way.
well said.
I don't hate Dent or anybody. I appreciate your acknowledgement that he's a patrician. Kasich's endorsements belie your assertion that the establishment is supporting Rubio. The establishment is split. That's why Trump is skating by. I don't have a dog in the fight. I believe we all have already lost this election.
Your words speak for themselves, it is not Dent's fault that he was born and let money to family anymore than it is your fault that you were born an asshole. The reality is that Rubio is the establishment candidate and that Dent took heat from the patricians for backing the grown up candidate. Your slurs at Dent indicate that you are one of the nutty Rs who always find fault with him or an equally nutty partisan Democrat. Most real blue collar people relate to Dent and would relate to Kasich if they knew more about him. But instead of covering the issues, and he media has treated a presidential contest as though it were a Kardashian reality show.
I've reread those posts and don't find a single "slur" of Dent; just a disagreement with your claim he's bucking the establishment. You both called him patrician, if that's a slur. Agree with your Kardashian comparison.
Well then you need to take reading lessons. The third comment posted on this thread was an attack on Dent.
@1:33 PM you hit the nail on the head. if people only studied what the pos Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive movement that was steeped in racism and govt over reach, they might reconsider naming school, and other properties after President racist.
Do a little search on movie nights at the Whitehouse while Wilson was there. he loved showing movies about the KKK. In fact he was "moved" by the KKK.
Of course , the current progressives who own and operate the public schools believe American history started in 1964, will never bad mouth a POS big govt racist progressive liberal democrat like old woody Wilson.
You do understand that Trump is very much big government, too, don't you? And am I to understand that Wilson's 1900's era racism, which certainly existed, is a justification for racism and xenophobia by the authoritarians, which is what you really are? Did you know Ulysses S Grant was so anti-Semitic that he once ordered a troop train stopped so he could get rid of all the Jews? Does that mean that the Republicans today are anti-Semitic? Of course not! Your argument is complete nonsense, but you are not swayed by logic. It is fear that drives you and other authoritarians.
Hillary does well in states that otherwise still go red in the electoral college, such as tonight's MS primary. MI, etc, close. Trump loses General in almost most polls, yet rank and file go for his calculated rhetoric?... can't help but believe that they are being played. A rationale GOP like Kasich could win a General. Close in popular vote, but do able in electoral unless Trump's anger-voters stay home.
Don't know why, but whenever I post from phone it often doubles up, and I have to delete one. Sorry.
Don't know why, but whenever I post from phone it often doubles up, and I have to delete one. Sorry.
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