The mainstream media has been trying to portray John Kasich, a compassionate conservative who cares about everyone, not just corporations.
This resident of Ohio disagrees, in a comment posted here:
Let’s remember that Kasich eliminated the tangible personal property tax last year. This tax on businesses helped fund school districts (along with other entities dependent on levies such as park districts), and a lot of school districts are hurting as a result.
It wasn’t so much that years ago state Republicans decided to do away with this tax in the name of making the state “more business friendly,” it’s that they intentionally did not take action to find another source of support for the entities that would be affected. There was push back, and a freeze on what had been the gradual phase-out of this tax was put in place.
Kasich lifted the freeze and ended the gradual phase-out in one motion. Poof — an important revenue stream was gone!
One result will be school districts asking for higher levies, as mine is about to do. The effect is money from my and my neighbors’ pockets will go to fund a tax break for businesses. And even if the levies all pass, there will still be cutbacks, just not as severe.
This is similar to what happened when Kasich did away with the Ohio estate tax. Local governments lost a fair amount of revenue, and local services were cut and taxes were raised to make up the difference.
When Kasich gets teary-eyed and starts talking about America’s strength being its people, how it is up to all of us, he is really saying, “When I am President, all of you are on your own.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Don’t even get me started on John Kasich. I’m a registered Republican, and this man is a mean guy who cares about nothing but himself. The happiest day for me is John Kasich’s last day as Ohio governor. Governor Strickland should have been a two term governor, not him.
This excerpt from Plunderbund, Sept 9, 2010:
“When John Kasich was in Congress, homelessness was a growing national concern, just as it is today. I was an advocate on behalf of the homeless and went to Washington DC to try and lobby Congress for additional funding. I joined with a group of advocates who met with then-Congressman Chalmers Wylie and toured a local shelter. During the tour, Congressman Wylie ran into a former appointee of Gov. Jim Rhodes who had fallen on hard times and was living in the shelter. Congressman Wylie was very moved by this encounter, realized that people from all walks of life could end up homeless and agreed to help find additional federal money to support shelters nationwide.
While we were in town, we called the other central Ohio Congressman, John Kasich, to see if he would join Congressman Wylie and help this important cause. Kasich refused to even meet with us.
His staff said he was only meeting with people who had plans to cut federal spending. We went to his office anyway. Once again, we were told he would not even speak to us. so we waited, and waited and waited. His staff asked us to leave to risk arrest for trespassing. We did not leave, Congressman Kasich had us arrested and we all spent the night in a DC jail.”
I met Congressman Wylie. He was a gracious, sincere man and I felt honored. Strickland was compassionate, authentic, and a true son of Appalachia. Kasich is mean, vindictive, and has hurt Ohio for decades to come.
Americans should not let the kind old Kasich grandpa act fool them.
MathVale, I could not agree with you more. As an Ohio teacher and even a Republican, I cannot stand the man. My husband was a principal years back, and Governor Strickland took time out of his busy schedule and toured my husband’s building. My husband said that he had never met a kinder man than Governor Strickland. John Kasich is a mean, vindictive, arrogant man…and it is great to see him fall on his face to become president. Kasich has done so much damage to Ohio and its schools. He makes me so mad, and I am a mild mannered woman.
This is how his handlers marketed Snyder in Michigan. ‘Nuff Said …
He recently said if he were nominated he might choose Chris Christie as his running mate – enough said.
Oh please!
Just because someone looks like someone’s affable grandfather, does not mean he is a moderate. To better understand Kasich, we need to examine the disastrous policies Kasich has inflicted on the people of Ohio.
Absolutely! He is passive-aggressive and will do anything to aid his cronies to make money and take down public schools.
The mainstream media, including the New York Times which actually endorsed Kasich for the Republican nomination, is so easily fooled by superficialities and spin. It’s not just the politicians who are frightening but the willful ignorance of the press.
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My Ohio teacher friends despise Kasich, even the Republicans. He’s in the pocket of the education deformers and charter moguls, like much of the Ohio legislature. Calling him a moderate is an insult to the memory of Bill Scranton, George Romney, and Nelson Rockefeller. But then, so is calling Hillary Clinton a progressive an insult to a host of great progressives of the past.
It is often overlooked that Kasich and his staff, once in power, purged the Ohio Republican party of moderates starting with Kevin DeWine, and installed far right cronies of the governor, some with questionable resumes.
The incompetence of the Democratic Party in Ohio has done much to elevate Kasich. I’m always amazed how the stink of Lehman Brothers has not managed to be attached to him. As the Plain Dealer showed a few years ago (in an article few seemed to have read), he got a cushy deal to set up a home office–even though he and the person who hired him agreed that he had no experience in the field other than political contacts–sold garbage to the state of Ohio while pocketing millions that eventually contributed to the fiscal problems that brought Gov. Strickland down. Then St. John marched in to benefit from the national economic recovery and proclaim himself a savior. And the Dems nominated a man who strives to be an empty suit to run against Kasich and allow himself to appear “moderate” and “compassionate.” He does, however, hold his cronies unaccountable and pad their incomes with lots of public funds.
OH Democrats echo what is happening at the national level, I wonder sometimes if they aren’t’ a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party.
All this is also without mentioning, so far, what has happened to schools in Youngstown, Ohio. Any updates?
Great post! It is absolutely accurate! John Kasich is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Strange that Kasick is gaining some ground due solely to putting himself forth as a low-level mainstream Republican–. when his state history shows him to be a right-wiing nut whose policies have ruined his own states’ quality of living.
Pretending to be moderate didn’t work for Jeb and it won’t work for Kasich.
Jeb! was trying more to run as a guy with a pulse. I think Kasich and Rubio have already successfully seeded the media with the notion that they are moderates. It’s a vice of today’s media — they are almost instinctually looking for “equal and opposite” narratives, so if Hillary is the “sensible Democrat” they really want her to have at least one opponents who is considered a moderate.
We’re at a point in the evolution of the Republican Party where the definition of “moderate” is solely tied up with public tone. Kasich and Rubio are capable of couching their agenda in sunny aphorisms and a nice smile, so they are “moderates” despite the fact that both men would leave Ronald Reagan absolutely no room on his right flank.
This is also how Secretary Clinton gets labeled a “liberal” by the national media when she is more like an Eisenhower Republican (i.e. actually a moderate) and Senator Sanders is some wild-eyed revolutionary when all he really is is an FDR Labor Democratic. We don’t have those anymore, so he must be a crazy guy.
Even former Minnesota Governor (and ex-pro-wrestler) Jess Ventura is up to speed on this:
JESSE VENTURA: “Ohio schools area national joke, so let’s elect the man behind the mess as our next president?
” … ”
(a brief overview of charter school self-dealing with leases… i.e. IMAGINE SCHOOLS… THEN)
( 02:41 –
( 02:41 –
JESSE VENTURA:
“THERE is the POINT I want people to grasp.
UNDERSTAND this CLEARLY.
“Corporations are there TO MAKE PROFIT.
Governments is there TO PROVIDE SERVICES.
“When you start mixing the two, like they’re doing now — bringing corporations and the private sector into educating our children, it is still, for them (private sector profiteers, JACK), a for-profit business, which means in the end, that kids are going to suffer.
“Because THEN, IT’S NO LONGER ABOUT PROVIDING THE SERVICE — it’s about providing PROFIT FIRST, and SERVICE SECOND.
“If the government is going to provide public schools, and everyone is going to get a fair public education, then I believe we don’t need for-profit, corporate industry coming into education. This is a prime example of this, when, all of a sudden, it isn’t about educating the kids. It’s about citing big money leases, so that somebody can profit tremendously, because it’s the tax dollars, in the end, that all of us are paying. Right?”
CO-HOST: “That’s right, and there’s more to this story … ”
and then goes into the David Hansen corruption fiasco, where Hansen’s wife is Kasich’s campaign manager.
And here’s MOTHER JONES magazine’s on Kasich and the Ohio Charter School Scandal:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/08/ohio-charter-schools-john-kasich-imagine
Samantha Bee does a wonderful job exposing the Kasich mirage on her program tonight. Sad that comedians actually do a better job of reporting the news than the script readers who pose as journalists and news reporters.