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?

Convention Busting Bumpers

I've had a chance to catch some of the media coverage of Obama's commencement speech at Notre Dame. The piece in the NYT was decent. It did seem to reference the common use of graphic imagery on the part of the anti-abortion protesters. The rampant hyperbole used to describe the president's supposed hatred for the unborn was a close second.

Opposition to abortion on religious grounds is not hard to understand. What I have always been troubled with is the primacy placed on this one issue above all other moral questions. Wars built on lies and unbridled greed don't rile the lifers as much these days.

Making the daily drive up to Cleveland today I noticed a car with two bumper stickers. The sticker on the left side read, "Former Fetus Opposed to Abortion". Prominently displayed on the upper right bumper was an Obama 08 sticker.

There it was, a glaring contradiction to the conventional wisdom purveyed by the insurrectionists at Notre Dame. Pro-life is more than a stance on abortion. Supporting a Democrat for president and opposing abortion do not have to be mutually exclusive beliefs. Obama didn't manage to win an election and not grab a portion of the devout Christian vote.

Now, I don't wear my bumper stickers on my sleeve but that driver was a voter I can respect.

Whiteguys and Wingers and Birthers, Oh My

I surveyed the attendees assembling for the Cleveland Tea Bag Festival from my fourth floor perch on Lakeside Avenue.   From this vantage point I could surmise some basic themes emerging in the gathering crowd pf proto-revolutionaries. From the signs people where carrying there was a definitive animus towards the federal government, Obama, taxes of any kind and liberals.

Here are some things I didn't see:

Crispus Attucks - Let's face it, this is a white man's movement.

Non Partisans - The whole tea party theme is a cover for the ant-Obama / Democratic party slant on display at every location I've seen coverage of.

The Independently Wealthy - Let the middle class do the work of shilling for the rich guys.

NPR - Can't imagine the anti-Fox News will do to much to acknowledge today's rallies.

History Majors - The original Tea Party was to protest the actions of a large corporation, this one intends to do their bidding.

Empty Hands - Flags or poster board signs with witty or paranoid sounding slogans were mandatory to gain entrance.

CoExist Bumper Stickers - Doubtful this was a crowd willing to embrace people of all backgrounds.

The Ability to Detect Irony

The Unsinkable Ken Blackwell

You have got to credit Ken Blackwell for his unwavering fealty to the tenets of hard right conservatism.  The man who brought us the Patriot Pastor movement and capitalism through Christ surfaced for air time on cable network MSNBC this week.

The latest chapter of the world according to Ken had him debating Christopher Hitchens on the role of Christianity in American politics.  That point was lost on Blackwell who spent most of his response time defending Christianity as the official religion of the United States.

I do appreciate the MSNBC producer who came up with the idea of pitting Blackwell against Hitch.   The segment contrasts the dogmatic persistence of Blackwell's nutter philosophy with the cynical contrarianism of Hitchen's intellectual conservatism.

Catch the highlights here.  Blackwell manages to remind us of the fanatic viewpoint of his movement's governance style in two distinct sound bites.  The first is at 3:20 into the segment where he explains how Judeo-Christian precepts and principles lay the moral foundation to allow for a free market enterprise.  From what I understand Jesus wasn't too big on the power of capitalism.  

At around 7:50 in he extols movement conservatism's favorite red herrring argument that Christianity is perpetually the underdog of America's religions.  He attempts to quote someone named W. E. Archer when he  says:

"...it might take a crucified church to take a crucified Christ into the view of the eyes of the world.."

I can't figure out what Blackwell is calling for here.  I think he means his buddy Rod Parsley needs you to quickly pick up the phone and buy a DVD to prepare for the end of days.  I'm not quite sure.  

It was good to see Ken get some exposure none the less. I didn't realize he had a gig with the Family Research Council .  It reminds me just how blessed Ohio was when we were granted a reprieve from his theocratic master plan for our State.

IUOE Local 18 Loses Its Mind

The Plain Dealer covered John McCain's visit to the Cleveland area but the real story wasn't the actual visit or the prepared remarks:

Pool report: Republican presidential candidate John McCain spoke briefly this morning at a construction site at Interstate 71 and Ohio 82, where he promised to bring jobs to Ohio and accepted the endorsement of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 18.

Unions typically endorse democratic candidates but that's quickly becoming the conventional wisdom these days. The Cleveland chapter of the International Union of Operating Engineers lent Republican John McCain their endorsement today. The sanction was given despite his party's track record of marginalizing unions and rampant support of free trade agreements. They appear to be an outlier unlike the large manufacturing unions like the UAW or other major players like the S.E.I.U. and A.F.S.C.M.E. who will most certainly put there muscle behind the Obama campaign this fall. One thing that makes the I.U.O.E different is that they are a construction union and per their website the contractors they are affiliated with are small family owned businesses. This is exactly the group of voters that McCain is trying to woo with his unrelenting "Obama will raise your taxes" mantra. That being said whatever happend to union brotherhood?

The blue collar tweekers are usually mobilized to help out the Democratic candidate but in Ohio in 2008 nothing can be taken for granted. Now I don't foresee more unions peeling off in great numbers to endorse a candidate that most likely does not have their best interest at heart but any movement from the norm is not a welcome sign. Obama will need all the support of the traditional Democratic base and then some if he thinks he is going to win the Buckeye State. Union Yes, McCain No.

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Meet Bizarro Hillary

John McCain the maverick is back and has defied convention and the odds makers by picking Alaska governor Sarah Palin to join him on the GOP ticket. There are some risks with this pick but, it could be a brilliant move or come off as exceedingly calculated and condescending to voters. The McCain campaign certainly must be aware of the danger but had to weigh those risks against the long shot chance of winning this election. Defying convention with Palin is one way to shake up the race and create their own fate. I agree with Ed Shultz, it has the feel of a Hail Mary pass. It is telling about how hard they think it's going to be to win the election.

IOKIYAR Alert

Obviously her lack of experience in Washington in the foreign policy milieu is going to be hard to shake. Andrew Sullivan makes a good case for
not going the Palin route at the Daily Dish:

The first criterion for a veep - and I'm simply repeating a truism here
- is that they are ready to take over at a moment's notice. That's
especially true when you have a candidate as old as McCain. That's more than especially true when we are at war, in an era of astonishingly difficult challenges, when the next president could be grappling with war in the Middle East or a catastrophic terror attack at home. Under those circumstances, we could have a former Miss Alaska with two terms years under her belt as governor.

There's no easy way to predict what the McCain handlers were thinking. Here are some reasons that the McCain people must have used to rationalize the Palin pick:

The Bizarro Hillary

Attract the legions of disaffected Hillary supporters that supposedly have left the Democratic party. Have these guys read the latest polls? The massive carve out of Hillary supporters heading for the McCain camp looks more and more like a media concoction built up to attract
eyeballs to cable news channels. How many pant suits does this women have? She will need a lot of them to pull of the Hillary switcharoo if that's what she plans to do.

A Biden Factor

A perceived vulnerability of Biden by McCain could be a factor in selecting Gov. Palin. He will easily demonstrate his gigantic advantage in foreign policy over Palin during the VP debate. Biden has legendary loose lips and they may perceive a slight chance that he could mutter something condescending or rood during the debate. The echo chamber would cycle such caddy behavior and pull Biden down with it. On the other hand he may try to hold back and not completely school her to avoid looking like a jerk.

Bucking Party Orthodoxy - To a Degree

Palin has the appropriate bona fides. She is of course a pro-life evangelical, a lifetime member of the NRA, an advocate of small government, anti-earmarks, pro-drill-the-shit-out-of-everywhere and a defense hawk (how can you tell). She does however support some rights of gay couples, is an advocate of energy diversification and likes basketball. I think the McCain camp realizes the Republican brand is in shambles and introducing a female VP pick that has a mavericky edge like him could be effective in attracting independent and swing voters. This may not be 100% amiable to the GOP faithful but they will fall in line in the end of this pick pays off.

As much as he annoys me I think Romney would have been a better pick for McCain. He espoused all of the right conservative viewpoints on the primary trail as evidenced by the prattling done over him on right wing radio. He would also give McCain the edge in Michigan. And since he isn't a Washington fixture or a party insider he has some of the outsider cache that today's right wingers thirst for. Apparently the focus group horseshit conducted by Team McCain said otherwise.

Obama certainly has many angles to go after on the Palin VP pick and he should exploit those where possible. In the end I wouldn't underestimate Palin. She has risen in a meteoric fashion to get to the governorship of Alaska. I know it's only Alaska and not a mighty swing state like Ohio or Michigan but, her political achievements like those of Obama have come at a relatively early age which speaks to her determination and savvy.

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Finally a Foothold for Obama

The McCain house party has hit the news cycle and this should be seen as manna from heaven by the Obama campaign. With the polls looking tighter and the negative adds taking there toll on Obama the momentum was on McCain's side. Being able to counter the typical GOP attacks of 'Obama's an elitist" depends on taking advantage of the statements like those made by McCain this week. Being rich is one thing. Being so rich that you have houses laying around like dirty underwear just seems out of touch with average people. That's the theme that has to be replayed over and over in order to have an impact on voter perceptions.

Of course team McCain had to hit back and they came back swinging. Unfortunately for McCain they hit like a girl (not PC, I know) and appear to be desperate for any comeback. The latest counter attack goes for the old reliable Obama - Rezko association and all that stuff. It's kind of a curious move because the Rezko material is not easy to grasp and not in your face like actually not knowing how many homes one owns. And it won't be hard for Obama to see that Rezko and raise McCain one Charles Keating. Funny how years of inside the beltway dealings leave a residue on the Senator from AZ.

Anyway Obama needs to hold on to this foothold like grim death. Let the 24 hour news cycle work for us for once and drill this one into the popular lexicon. In fact why not carry the theme of an out of touch McCain right into the convention next week?

Romney Refutes His Magic Underpants

The Mittster gave his JFK speech on religion yesterday to allay the fears of conservative evangelical voters that he wasn't Christian enough. Not once during the speech did he mention his magic underpants or temple garment as they are also known. The mere acknowledgment of their existence may have negated any potential gains in trust Romney was trying to win from potential fundamentalist voters that doubt his Christian bona fides.

There's been so much analysis and punditry on the speech that I'm not going to waste much space on it. I do believe Mitt was specifically targeting the zealot base of the GOP that places religiosity over everything else when it comes to elections. Don't believe for a second that it was an assurance that religion and the evangelical power brokers couldn't play a role in a Romney presidency. He was just trying to assuage their fears that his off brand of Christianity wouldn't prohibit him from pursuing the narrowly crafted social agenda that they so crave. As David Brooks rightly points out in today's NYT column a success for Romney would be to gain solidarity in the culture wars that his party has exploited for so long.