FIRST & FINAL Thoughts On the Week That Was…
FIRST Ohio Governor John Kasich is running for president, though he hasn’t officially declared just yet. But this week, it was revealed that his New Day for America super-PAC has decided to reach back into campaign defeatist history and hire a strategist who worked on John McCain’s failed 2008 presidential campaign and more recently on former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman’s fizzled 2012 presidential bid.
On Wednesday, Governor Kasich’s presidential team hired John Weaver as senior strategist to lead the presumed 2016 presidential candidate’s campaign team.
(For more on Governor Kasich’s presidential hopes, check out our analysis here.)
We first have to ask why any candidate would hire consultants and strategists who worked on failed presidential campaigns, especially McCain’s 2008 bid. Shouldn’t candidates seek new, fresh voices who possess bold and innovative ideas? Or how about consultants who have a successful track record?
Those questions aside, we were astounded, though not surprised, that Governor Kasich and his team hired John Weaver this week who has a known reputation for having such disdain for conservatives.
Among the several glaring examples of that disdain for conservatives include this quote by John Weaver, courtesy of one of our favorite websites HotAir:
We’re not finished committing suicide here. We also have the opportunity to kill immigration reform, and the odds are that we will do that, just to make sure we’re the angry-white-man party.
Weaver goes on to say that the Republican party would benefit from a massive George McGovern-like defeat with a Ted Cruz nomination in order to wrestle back control of the party from constitutional conservatives and give power back to the moderate and establishment Nelson Rockefeller types.
Who does he think controls Congress now? Apparently, Mr. Weaver must think John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are far right wing conservatives!
In yet another example of his dislike of the conservative base, John Weaver said this, “There’s a simple reason our party is nowhere near being a national governing party. No one wants to be around a bunch of cranks.”
After working on McCain’s 2000 campaign and upset how that bitter primary battle turned out, Weaver left the Republican party and began helping out Democrats. Only when McCain ran again for president in 2007 did he switch back.
He seems like a poor loser. Would you trust him with your once-in-a-lifetime presidential campaign? Governor Kasich is about to find out.
John Weaver is known to advise his clients to skip the Iowa caucuses which are the first presidential test and bring out a strong base of conservative and evangelical voters.
Case in point, in 2008, Senator McCain didn’t put much effort into Iowa and finished a distant fourth while Jon Huntsman didn’t hold any events in Iowa in 2011 and focused all his energy on the liberal and moderate Republican voters in New Hampshire. While McCain did end up winning the nomination in 2008 due to a weak field, conservatives, including ourselves, were quite upset with his nomination and he was defeated soundly by Barack Obama.
As for the very moderate and very establishment Jon Huntsman, his candidacy in 2012 was doomed from the beginning and it mattered little that he skipped Iowa. He was never aiming for conservative voters to begin with.
Is this the game plan that Weaver will be advising Governor Kasich in 2016? Kasich said recently that he plans to campaign in Iowa. But if he does, who will he try to woo? The cranks of the party? The angry white man?
If his policy positions are any indication, he will court the moderate voter who is okay with Medicaid expansion and Common Core. That is not a likely winning strategy.
It’s no surprise that John Weaver would offer up his consulting services again to the moderate John Kasich. His resume proves his desire to see the ghost of Nelson Rockefeller finally get his due inside the White House.
But as the elections of 1992, 1996, 2008, and 2012 in recent history suggest, national stage Republican moderates are good for one thing only: to put smiles on radical leftists who celebrate with their winning candidate every four years in November.
John Kasich should learn a little history before running for president as a moderate and hiring men like John Weaver who will cash his checks without suffering the consequences from losing.
Paul Ryan is acting like Nancy Pelosi. During congressional testimony this week concerning the Obamatrade legislation, Rep. Ryan said, “it’s declassified and made public once it’s agreed to.”
If those words sound similar to what Nancy Pelosi once said, you would be correct. In 2010,then Speaker of the House Pelosi infamously said concerning Obamacare, “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”
So that’s how Congress is run these days? Nice.
In typical media hysterical fashion, June 12, 2015 was the day it was supposed to happen.
ABC News predicted back in 2008 that New York City was going to be under water due to climate change/global warming. Well, we scanned news sources and there have been no reports of this catastrophe as of yet.
Shocking! Another media prediction gone wrong.
Can you believe that Marco Rubio bought an $80,000 boat? The New York Times certainly can’t!
For the second straight week, this blog has highlighted the media attacks on Senator Rubio. Last week, it was he and his wife’s traffic violations. What’s next from the disgraceful The New York Times concerning Marco Rubio? That he pays to have his shirts ironed? He owns a set of golf clubs? Every time the media hacks like The New York Times attack Sen. Rubio, the more and more sympathy and support he receives from the grassroots conservative movement and the public in general.
FINAL Happy Birthday to President George H.W. Bush, a truly fine gentleman who celebrated his 91st 
birthday on Friday. We thank him for both his military and public service to our country and wish him health and happiness.
