Kasich: GOP under Trump doesn't resemble the Republican Party

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

Sorry John, its time to leave, give it up.  The party went crazy and all the sane people have jumped ship. Join us 😊

Problem is the Dems are terrible to and are getting much worse .


If only the Blue Dogs were still there

People like you really need to make up your mind.

If the Democrats are THAT bad, THAT awful, then stop demonizing Trump.  He may be a yucky-yucky, but he believes  in the vast majority of what you believe in.

If they're not, join them.  Or be an independent like me.  I'm a registered Republican, but an independent voter, and I'm certainly not voting for Rick Scott for anything.

Trump did the hard work of actually offering Republicans a choice as to what it meant to be a Republican, and a number of protectionist Perot-voters and their families that had abandoned the party in 1992 (but voted GOP in downballot races) were still there, and now, they were being counted.  The biggest businessman in the race made his cause with them, and not with the Business Roundtable.  And he won.  That indicates to me that guys like Kasich really didn't have an idea as to who was exactly in their party.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

Oh, grow a pair and announce your primary challenge already!

Then run already.

This seems like a weird reaction, given that it's only 2018.  This isn't a parliamentary system, so Kasich can't force Trump out now, two years before the election.  Trump's term ends in more than two years whether Kasich announces now or six months from now.

Yeah, people here mock Delaney for announcing way too early, yet are now saying Kasich should?

Kasich is in a different situation; he is now well-known and a national figure, whereas Delaney is a total unknown.

Kasich is the #NeverTrump guy that has surprised me the most.  I thought he'd be one of the first GOP contenders to endorse Trump.  At a minimum, I thought Kasich would come around and endorse Trump in the last month, even if it was only a "I'm supporting the GOP ticket!" without actually appearing with Trump or campaigning for him.

I don't see Kasich as a Democrat the way I can see Zell Miller as a Republican.  Kasich is well-suited to the GOP, all things considered.  He's not a Democrat at heart, and he really doesn't take any issue positions that reflect him as being significantly out of sync with the GOP.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

If he really wants to torpedo Trump's chances in 2020, he should not only primary him, but continue running in the general. He and Flake could run together and peel off enough support to make a difference. A Democratic White House might leave a bad taste in his mouth, but he may calculate that it is worth it if it diverts the GOP from going further down the road of Trumpism in the long run. I think he realizes that he probably will never be president at this point, and 2016 could have been his year if Trump had never run. It could be a mixture of revenge and "Look at it this way, I'm doing you guys a favor. You'll see."

Spoiler: More Democrats like John Kasich in 2018 than Republicans do. Check the crosstabs in his Ohio approval rating. The idea of a third party ticket hurting Trump is wishful thinking.

They like him because he's criticizing Trump. But if he ran he'd probably still mostly win Republicans (or former Republicans actually) since Democrats don't like his policies at all and would vote for their own nominee. Kasich getting 10-15% of people who identify as Republican (or Republicans + R-leaning indies) should pretty much finish Trump off. Unless the Democratic ticket also is hurt by third parties lol.

Dems want Kasich to run a kamikaze mission against Trump, either as a 3rd party candidate or as a primary challenger.  Kasich would not prevail in either of these contests, but he'd aid the Democrats greatly if he did.

I don't see many Democrats yearning for Kasich to switch parties and run as a Democrat for President.  Just what standard Democratic Party positions does Kasich adhere to now, and how many could he credibly adhere to if he made the switch?

Kasich had big dreams about making over the GOP thinking Trump would go down in flames.  Then, horror of horrors, Trump was elected.  I can only imagine how Kasich's "The Future Of The Republican Party" meeting on the Friday after Election Day 2016 went.  Kasich is a Republican, he's a Republican at heart, he's really OK with Republican policy, he just can't stand being preempted by Trump.  He can't recognized a party which has rejected him as throughly as the current GOP has, but it's the same party he's been part of for a while now.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

Dems want Kasich to run a kamikaze mission against Trump, either as a 3rd party candidate or as a primary challenger.  Kasich would not prevail in either of these contests, but he'd aid the Democrats greatly if he did.

I have doubts about that on both counts.  I don't know that a Kasich primary run would actually hurt Trump at all in the GE.  It might actually help him.  Trump benefits from the perception that "the establishment" is out to get him, and that he himself isn't really the establishment (despite the fact that he's the sitting president of the United States).  So if an establishmentarian figure like Kasich is Trump's main primary rival, then that feeds that narrative.  It could actually help him to have Kasich to beat up on in the primaries.  (In contrast, I think if Trump was challenged by another outsider in the primaries, *that* could be damaging to him.)

And as for a 3rd party run by Kasich....I don't know that he'd do any better than Gary Johnson 2016.  And he could very well draw from the Romney-Clinton pool at least as much as he's drawing votes from people who might otherwise vote Trump.

Well . . . maybe.

I don't think a viable primary for Kasich would help Trump.  Trump would be aided if he crushed Kasich 4-1 or something like that.