Why Is John Kasich Sticking Around Again?
Wait a minute, John Kasich, walk us through your "Midwest beachhead" strategy again, in light of this morning's Quinnipiac poll of Ohio: Not even native son Gov. John Kasich can stop the Donald Trump steamroller as Kasich falls behind the Republican front-runner 31 – 26 percent among Ohio likely Republican primary voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is at 21 percent with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida at 13 percent and Dr. Ben Carson at 5 percent. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leads Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont 55 – 40 percent among Ohio likely Democratic primary voters, the independent Quinnipiac University Poll finds. As I noted Saturday night, Kasich's got a long, difficult road before any of the states in his "Midwest beachhead" starts voting. One week before Michigan, on March 1, is the group of contests nicknamed the "SEC primary" -- Alabama, the Alaska caucus, Arkansas, the Colorado caucus, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota caucus, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming. Then, on March 5, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Maine hold their caucuses and primaries. Polling is sparse in those states, but no polls in any of them look good for Kasich. In the one poll of Arkansas Republicans conducted so far this year, Kasich hit 4 percent. In the three polls conducted in Georgia in 2016, Kasich reached 4 percent, 2 percent, and 4 percent. In the most recent poll conducted in Oklahoma, Kasich is at 3 percent. In the two polls in Texas conducted in 2016, he's been at 1 percent and 3 percent. In the one poll conducted in Virginia this year, he was at 7 percent. At this point, whether he wants to admit it or not, Kasich is pretty openly campaigning for vice president. Presidential candidates ideally would be competitive in all 50 states, and short of that, competitive in the vast majority of them. I don't see why Republicans are supposed to put their faith in a candidate who concedes or chooses to skip Iowa, then only puts in half effort in South Carolina, and then sputters in the single digits in the next 18 states. And if Kasich seems like a guy with no victorious path ahead . . . what's Ben Carson doing? 'I've Never Encountered a Group of People More Averse to Being Told How It Is' I've had several people send me this piece by Matt Walsh, arguing that the vast majority of Trump fans demonstrate an insane double standard: You say you want some straight-shooting, honest, politically incorrect tough talk, but that's simply a lie. If it were true, my inbox would not be filled to capacity with cartoonishly shocked and outraged Trump fans every time I utter a word of criticism in his direction. It shouldn't matter that my criticisms are sharp and severe; you ought to revere me all the more for it. I thought you were tired of people walking on egg shells? It turns out you don't want Donald Trump to walk on egg shells, but you have fortified your own perimeter with a thick layer of egg shells and you expect anyone who comes near it to tip toe with extreme caution. It turns out you want to be coddled and cuddled and pandered to and excused. You're in favor of whatever Trump says because Trump said it, but when it comes to how people talk about you and him, you expect to be treated like a soft and delicate flower. Everyone else ought to be subject to relentless and profane invective from an elderly Manhattan real estate heir, but you and he should be above reproach. Tell it like it is? I'll tell you like it is: In my life I've never encountered a group of people more averse to being told how it is. Of course, you believe you're entitled to this attitude because you're "angry." Your "anger" indulges you with the moral authority to take leave of your reason and your common sense. Your anger, you believe, places you beyond judgment, even as you attempt to drag this country into a future of (more) tyranny and cultism. You believe the rest of us ought to take your supposedly righteous rage into account while you refuse to take anything but your own infatuation with spectacle and celebrity into account. Whatever concerns we raise, including the ones I'm raising now, can be written off in an instant. "WE'RE TIRED OF POLITICS AS USUAL! WE'RE ANGRY!" And that's supposed to be some kind of rhetorical hall pass, permitting you to do and say what you please unchallenged. The Electorate, as a Whole, Punishes People Who Tell Them the Truth After the 2012 election, Ross Douthat offered the grim suggestion that the lesson for candidates was to always endorse the bailout of an industry -- particularly one like the auto industry -- and never, ever discuss entitlement reform. Never talk about taking something away, always talk about giving people more. Why do people think Republicans want to reform entitlement programs? Because we're mean? Because we like taking things away from people? No, because the programs are unsustainable. Down the road, too much money goes out, and not enough money comes in. We're proposing these ideas because these programs have to be saved for the people who really need them to get by. Trying to solve the whole problem through tax hikes on a shrinking workforce would be a formula for economic disaster. (Notice our friends on the Left insist we need to make far-reaching, sweeping changes to prevent a two-degree change in temperature in the year 2100, but they refuse to consider means-testing, raising the retirement age, or private retirement accounts to prevent Social Security from using up their funds of money in 2034.) Conservatives -- at least certain factions of this philosophy -- are usually trying to persuade people to think ahead and contemplate the long term. Have a decent savings rate and a rainy-day fund. (Revel in the wonders of compound interest!) Stay in school. Get married and raise children. If you want peace, prepare for war. The problem is that human beings aren't great at long-term thinking, and the dominant culture of the United States in the year 2016 seems particularly bad for it. The vast majority of the public says they support a balanced budget; the vast majority refuse to consider anything close to the level of cuts needed to get us there: No - but try telling that to the American public. According to the poll, on average, Americans estimate that foreign aid takes up 10 percent of the federal budget, and one in five think it represents about 30 percent of the money the government spends. But the actual figure is closer to one percent, according to data from the Office of Management and Budget from the 2010 fiscal year's $3.5 trillion budget. OK. Let's try more low-hanging fruit - funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Our survey indicates nearly half of all Americans would like to see major cuts. According to our poll the public estimates that the government spent five percent of its budget last year on public television and radio. Not even close. The real answer is about one-tenth of one percent. The electorate wants someone to tell it that the answers are easy, that no sacrifice is needed and everything's going to turn out all right. Obamacare is going to save your family $2,500 a year! The stimulus is going to bring unemployment down to 7 percent by 2010! Here comes "Recovery Summer!" Osama bin Laden is dead and GM is alive! We can bring all of our troops home from Iraq and nothing that happens over there will ever affect our lives again! Then when things don't turn out as they expected, they flail around looking for scapegoats. ADDENDA: Allahpundit: "The current president, current vice president, current Senate minority leader, and incoming Senate minority leader have all gone on record in the past in favor of obstructing a Supreme Court nominee."  | 
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