Kasich's Heartland Wisdom

A John Kasich gubernatorial campaign will be a melange a Fox News invective, Ken Blackwell style conservatism and Buckeye Institute policy babble. The added bonus will of course be the omnipresent use of Ohio as heartland theme that Kasich has parlayed into a career on cable television.

When the campaign starts Kasich will divide his time between enforcing supply-orthodoxy (think income tax phase out) and the reclaiming Ohio for the Tea Party elements of the GOP. The latter will involve bitch slapping us with heaping helpings of heartland wisdom. Think of this as the "what's the matter with Ohio" John Kasich. Ohio's voters as seen through the eyes of the Rovian political lens.

A great example of what to expect can be seen in his interview with Steven Colbert in March of 2006. In the segment Kasich extols the virtues of Ohio and its heartland sensibility. We don't windsurf in the heartland Kasich exclaims (Colbert led out of the previous show segment with 2004 footage of John Kerry kite surfing. I don't know why that was pertinent in 2006). Ohioans being heartland dwellers have a keen sensibility to stay away from water sports and wetsuits.

That moment highlighting Kasich's penchant for stoking the flames the urban versus rural nuttery stuck with me. The stupidity of his rant against windsurfing and equating Ohio to some antebellum agrarian society is troubling.

You see, there's this large body of water that runs along the entire northern edge of Ohio. The large body of water I'm referring to is called LAKE ERIE! Perhaps the millions of people who venture to the shores and into its waters partake in activities such as windsurfing and kitesurfing and even surfing! Imagine that, not all buckeye state residents grow alfalfa for a living. I heard that most of us actaully live in the urban centers these days.

Kasich is going to be hitting the trail this summer blabbering about taking back the heartland to the detriment of the real issues voters want to hear about. Let's party like it's 1994. At this point I already have an idea how this will play out and it won't be pretty for Kasich or Ohio's image. At this point I doubt Ted Strickland is loosing any sleep over Kasich's entry into the race. Can someone please prod Mary Taylor into running for Governor?