ON THE GOP PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN TRAIL — Thoughtful voters terrified of the prospect of Donald Trump succeeding Barack Obama have, for months now, considered Ohio Gov. John Kasich as the only uncrazy Republican candidate for president. Many of them think of Kasich as the only “moderate" Republican running.
But all that went by the wayside after Kasich signed legislation on Saturday which provides that no state funds in the Buckeye State can go to Planned Parenthood.
Over the weekend, Kasich told reporters in Virginia how thrilled he was when he was elected to the Ohio State Senate in 1978, when he was 26, because “women left their kitchens” to volunteer for his campaign. Then Dawn Laguens, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said, “Kasich’s condescending attitude toward women needs to stop. He has enacted 17 restrictions on women’s health, shuttering nearly half the abortion providers in Ohio.” (http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/john-kasich-women-left-kitchen-comment-219621#ixzz40yrqWlKo).
A few hours ago, a solitary reporter met up with Kasich in Las Vegas, where Republicans are holding their presidential caucus today.
“You see, SR,” Kasich explained, “as a Republican, I have to be against Planned Parenthood. It’s as simple as that.”
There are now only five Republican candidates for president. Although Reince Priebus, Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan are desperately trying to make Kasich quit now, Kasich hopes to last until March 8, when Republicans in Michigan will have their say. If he can stay in the race that long, he might be able to last until March 15, because starting then, it’s winner take all for the Republicans.
Meanwhile, Ben Carson accused Barack Obama of being a racist because he was raised white (http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/ben-carson-obama-was-raised-white-219657).
In other campaign news, Marco Rubio, the boyish Cuban-American Tea Party senator from Miami who is the GOP’s last hope, ignored a story in today’s New York Times that coastal flooding in places such as Miami Beach are caused by global warming.
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