While there might be downside to the person challenging Trump, a primary opponent isn’t likely to take Trump on if he’s concerned about playing it safe and husbanding his or her popularity. The primary challenger, if you will, acts like the horse who jumps out to the lead, wears down the favorite and allows his stablemate to come from behind for the victory. And sometimes, the lead horse might actually win. Who’d do this? Maybe someone who already has a job (e.g., Mitt Romney, the Utah senator-elect), or doesn’t need one (e.g., a retired government official), or just thinks it’s the right thing to do (outgoing Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake?). ...I just love the phrase "husbanding his or her popularity."
[A] primary run doesn’t preclude a third-party run by a different candidate, most likely a moderate candidate in the event Trump wins the GOP nomination. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, visiting in New Hampshire, explained the ideal circumstances for such a run. My colleague David Weigel writes, “Kasich was speculating on what it would take to break the two-party system wide open. He imagined a 2020 matchup between Trump and a left-wing Democrat that would create ‘a vast ocean between the parties.’ ” The decision to mount a third-party run could wait until after both parties pick their nominee; but if Trump falters in the primary, nothing would stop Kasich (or anyone else) from entering the race. (For now, Kasich occupies an enviable position. A non-candidate with high name ID can continue to criticize Trump and urge his fellow Republicans to hold Trump accountable for his rhetoric and actions.)
Anyway... someone other than Kasich is supposed to go in there and wear himself out weakening Trump, and Kasich has identified himself as the one to come in after someone else does the groundwork. Kasich is the moderate in waiting — quite openly and with strong support from The Washington Post.
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Honest to God these people are insane.
Kasich has identified himself as a worthless piece of shit, just speaking from Ohio. The left hasn't noticed that.
I can't believe anyone would bother to read beyond the words "Jennifer Rubin."
" and with strong support from The Washington Post."
Piss on the W.P.
Is there one person who read that and said "what a good idea!"?
...and John Kaisch, and the horse he rode in on.
That’s just stupid.
The good people of Ohio seem to vote for some odd candidates. I could hardly believe my eyes when I read they traded Mike DeWine for Sherrod Brown.
John Kasich? Hell, NO!!!
John Kasich would lose to any Democrat I can imagine running in 2020.
In 2016 Republican voters chose Trumpas their candidate, and put him in the white house over Kasich's strenuously voiced objections.
One of the reasons I thought that Trump was sure to lose in 2016 is that Ohio was a must-win for Trump, and Kasich refused to cooperate with the Trump campaign -- Kasich would have had Trump's people in Ohio, the few that he had, arrested, if he could've gotten away with it.
Trump stomped Hillary in Ohio by 8 points.
We have to see who the Clinton campaign and DNC plan to elevate in the Republican primaries before we can consider questions like this.
Another way to beat Trump would be for the Democrat selection in the primary to not be a corrupt money-grubbing power whore who refuses to leave us alone.
Clinton corruption still winds around everything.
A Flake, Kasich, etc. Running as a 3rd party would accomplish only one thing:
Elect a Democrat.
Which I suppose is the REAL point.
Kasich got 5% of the R vote outside of Ohio, and wouldn't get that in 2020.
Does anyone remember John Anderson? A "moderate Republican" he ran in 1980 3rd party in order to elect Jimmy Carter. Later, he changed parties and become a D. Just like Crist in FLA.
Are we still pretending that Will, Rubin, Brooks, etc. are Conservatives?
For now, Kasich occupies an enviable position. A non-candidate with high name ID can continue to criticize Trump and urge his fellow Republicans to hold Trump accountable for his rhetoric and actions.
This is positively delusional.
The Never-Trumper Right are legends in their own minds. The deal was that Trump, the neophyte, would come into office & self-destruct. It would then become obvious to the Republican faithful that they had been sorely deceived & they would turn to their now vindicated Never-Trumper betters to pull them through.
Didn't happen. Trump has exceeded the expectations of a large fraction of those who voted for him, many of whom voted for him out of loathing for Hillary Clinton & all the Clinton Machine represented.
Trump may yet falter, but right now the GOP is Trump's.
Why is the R's ALWAYS have these Maverick/Turncoat assholes and the D's never do?
Btw, his Dad worked for the post office.
In the extremely unlikely event that Jennifer Rubin's hopes were realized, in less than a week after Kasich got the nomination the Washington Post would forget their open and strong for him and he would become "Hitler," like all other not yet dead Republican nominees.
Kasich called Trump a bigot/racist/homophobe/Nazi for 12 months during the primaries.
No one cared.
Even the moderates got tired of his "I'm the son of a mailman and what about globalism and immigrants and God's children"?
I got to the point, where I couldn't listen to him for more than minute without throwing a brick at the TV.
The post office? Why didn't you say so. I had no idea.
John Kasich was, by far, my least favorite of the GOP primary contenders. Trump was not far up the board. In fact, I was Never Trump for a few minutes. I don't even remember how I voted in the primary in Mississippi but it would have been for Cruz if he was still going at that time. Now that I think about it, I was probably in Houston getting chemo and radiation during the primary and that's probably why I don't remember i.e. I didn't vote. Regardless, I did not pull the lever for Trump in the primary on general elections. Now having said that, I would have voted for Trump in the general if it was going to be in anyway competitive with Hillary in MS. I voted Libertarian just to try to give that party some credence and I thought maybe several others would do the same but I don't think there was much of that effect.
Jennifer Rubin and Bill Kristol have fallen more in professional esteem than any "conservatives" with TDS.
Why don't Rubin and Kristol run in 2020?
That would be fun. Lets see how many votes they get.
Interestingly, the Post ombudsman had her number a long time ago. Se is a bad writer who is often wrong, never in doubt. He talks about her licking Romney's rear end in 2012, only to turn on hi with a savage fury, with no guiding principles.
https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/08/ex-washington-post-ombudsman-fire-jennifer-rubin-170603
Why anyone pays her any attention is mystery. Maybe the joy of staring at a bad car wreck.
Quick, name something that Kasich is famous for. Something he's done, something he's accomplished, even something he's stood for ineffectually.
I couldn't either. Who the heck is John Kasich?
[L]ess than a week after Kasich got the nomination the Washington Post would forget their open and strong for him and he would become "Hitler," like all other not yet dead Republican nominees.
And yet some candidate will pin his or her hopes on being the "good" Republican.
Crap ass Kasich is the republican that the democrat party members like. A new McCain, if you can stand him.
"Are we still pretending that Will, Rubin, Brooks, etc. are Conservatives?"
Yes, we are.
I will be president before John Kasich will be.
@Althouse, you do realize, I hope, that Jennifer Rubin and David Brooks are merely a progressive's dreams as to what a "good" conservative would be like. If they believed that there really was any such thing as a good conservative, that is.
But no conservative regards either of them as conservative.
As to Kasich, at the time he finally suspended his 2016 campaign, he was behind Trump in convention delegates by 996 to 153, and he had to win something on the order of 500% of the remaining delegates to become the nominee.
"Btw, his Dad worked for the post office."
Huh, never knew that.
I guess it would be too much to expect Rubin to just write that she wants the Democrats to win in 2020 rather than mount this phony argument to clearing a path of John Kasich.
There is going to be Democrat or Republican presidents until long after I shuffle off this mortal coil, and long after all you do, too.
"he had to win something on the order of 500% of the remaining delegates to become the nominee."
And Florida had already held its primary, so it was mission impossible.
That would be SO AWESOME!
Then, ALL THE PEOPLE IN THE COUNTRY could agree to NOT Vote for John Kasich
Finally something (and Someone!) on who America can agree (is a piece of CRAP)
Kasich fails to fill a high school gymnasium in Iowa. His campaign manager explains to the press, "he's husbanding his popularity."
Kasich is the moderate in waiting — quite openly and with strong support from The Washington Post.
Only as long as, and until, he fucks over the Republican's chances. As soon as he threatens the Democrats he's Hitler who wants to put chains on Black people, put gays in camps and force women to get pregnant and give birth.
Big Mike said...
@Althouse, you do realize, I hope, that Jennifer Rubin and David Brooks are merely a progressive's dreams as to what a "good" conservative would be like. If they believed that there really was any such thing as a good conservative, that is.
'House broken' is a better term. You can have them on the Sunday shows and they won't pee on the carpet.
John Kasich and Hillary Clinton will never be President.
Vanilla yogurt.
Kasich tried exactly this strategy in 2016 -- be there at the end as the alternative to Trump. No one wanted him, even then. Or maybe especially then
For all his faults, Kasich would be better than Harris, Booker, Biden, Clinton, Cuomo etc.
Kasich: If at first you don't succeed, then fail, fail, again.
It’s funny that Kasich still has dreams of national relevance.
"For all his faults, Kasich would be better than Harris, Booker, Biden, Clinton, Cuomo etc."
I wouldn't vote for him. He's a traitor who refused to support Trump against Hillary. He did everything except campaign for her.
If kasich got nominated, I'd cast a write in vote for Mom.
Remember when the press liked McCain right up until he ran against the golden boy?
How many of the 100+ Democrat candidates should we take to the general once Hillary gets the nomination? Four ought to do it...
I'd vote for Harris - Sinema over Kasich and just turn the sound off on the TV.
Not that it matters, living as I do in California---but the chances of that small hardy band of Republican survivors (run down and hunted into our burrows by the California Dims) voting for Kasich come 2020 are lower than whale poop on the bottom of the Marianas Trench.
Never Trumper Jonah Goldberg aptly calls Kasich the “human toothache.”
Katshit would deliver.
Jen Rubin will neither garner support nor husband her popularity for triple-threat Kasich.
Did you know his Dad was a mailman?
A challenger might garner votes, then the two party system might garner credible candidates. If they garner enough support ...
Kasich is a McCain but without the war record that enabled The Maverick to get away with his petty grandstanding for 30 years. Flake is worse than either. It will be interesting to see how far Romney will go in filling the void.
No one has spotted the lie, this whole wet dream is based on. President Trump is not a far right ideologue.(he's not even a Republican) After two years in office, he is more centrist than Kaisich. President Trump was willing to grant amnesty, to get the board wall built, and secure the boarder. He will deal on almost anything. The Dems fucked up an opportunity just as bad as the Republicans, to make a lot of progress.
Kasich has been a disappointment in Ohio.
Campaigned as a conservative, governed as a moderate. Screw that.
A neocon sending out a dumb foot soldier to do her dirty work while husbanding her personality.
As soon as I saw the word husbanding, I thought garner LOL.
Kasich is a cunt
Didn't they already try that strategy with McMullen? His 16 stablemates worked their magic to wear Trump down, and then he swooped in just like it was 1844 and...
Some wag referred to Kasich as "son of a postage stamp".
heh
AA:
"I just love the phrase "husbanding his or her popularity."
************
Reminds me of an old line by Tom Lehrer: "His educational career began interestingly enough in agricultural school, where he majored in animal husbandry, until they caught him at it one day."
Maybe they can create an AI hologram of John McCain for the primary campaign. Is there anything in the Constitution preventing that?
@R. J., you have to be a natural born citizen. AI programs are not “born” they are debugged.
If the Jen Rubin types ever get their hands on control of the party again, and one of their squish candidates becomes the nominee, I will vote third party for the rest of my life, and I won’t care if the left take over because of it.
Completely laughable. Kasich has no support. He's living out his own grandiosity fed by a Trump hating media. This whole idea is a joke. Its denial of the changes we are going through, a desire to return to "normalcy" that most people reject, on both sides. Normalcy was killing us.
I husbanded my popularity back in high school.
Yeah, that's what it was.
Ambrose said...
For all his faults, Kasich would be better than Harris, Booker, Biden, Clinton, Cuomo etc.
No he wouldn't.
He would pass all of the democrats policies and republicans would be blamed for the failure.
If Romney had won in 2012 Romneycare would be the law of the land, we would have amnesty, and we would have cap and trade.
We are lucky Obama won.
Kasich... (has) strong support from The Washington Post.
An excellent reason not to support Kasich.
Democracy Dies in Darkness!
Quick, name something that Kasich is famous for. Something he's done, something he's accomplished, even something he's stood for ineffectually.
Well, that's easy. He accomplished the task of getting Trump nominated, by refusing to withdraw and endorse Cruz as the united not-Trump candidate of Republicans.
Now, lucky us, Hillary Clinton was such a bad candidate that this wasn't enough in 2016. But the point of Rubin wanting him to run as a third-party candidate in 2020 is to ensure a Democrat's win.
So, she wants to replay 2016 with someone else in the Cruz role, except in 2020 it'll work against a sitting President when it failed in 2016 against a mere outsider candidate?
Seems like in 2016 half the GOP candidates were trying to avoid taking on Trump while hoping that someone else would cull the field and soften him up for them. It didn't work and after mid-March 2016 it didn't even make sense.
In its face, that's not a strategy, it's hardly even a thought.
Or maybe her REAL strategy is to soften up Trump to make him easier for the Democrat to take him out in the general. Deceitful, but if enough GOPs go for it, THAT makes sense. As Rubin may not be stupid, and looking at her body of work over the last few years, I will assume for now that is what she is after.
Kasich? Ewww... Yeah. of course someone else should do the bleeding and make the sacrifices, Kasich is too important for that shit.
And Jennifer Rubin? Ewww...
I said in 2016, these people were NeverCruz long before they became NeverTrump. You could tell, because when it came down to Trump, Cruz, and Kasich. Instead of backing Cruz, who had at least won a couple of primaries and had delegates; they backed last place, should have gotten out before Rubio and Bush, John Kasich, who had no clear path to victory even if he had won all the remaining primaries.
But I'm fine with the donor class wasting their money on Kasich. It redistributes money from DC, NY, California to Ohio. We Texans appreciate all the money given to Beto to spend in Texas on a losing cause.
“Calling all eunuchs” in the GOPe, WaPo want you, so that it can savage you in the general.
Mitt in 2020. 2nd time's a charm.
Being from Ohio...Kasich? Oh Good Lord.
"Why is the R's ALWAYS have these Maverick/Turncoat assholes and the D's never do?"
$$$ A self proclaimed Republican eager to bash their fellow Republicans has plenty of lefty media eager to give them the opportunity. What media is eager to give turncoat Democrats a platform - FOX?
I also would never vote for ossify, or Romney again for that matter.. there are some things that are just to far.
And I have only voted for one democrat in my life, jimmy carter. My first voting experience. Man did I learn my lesson. But those two will never get my vote, ever.
What's Kasich's constituency? Does he have one? Jeff Flake -- same question.
Former governor of a swing state seems like it should be a good credential, but he'd be a much stronger candidate if there were a group of people who wanted Kasich and only Kasich to be the next president. If you don't have that, I think Bob Dole or Mitt Romney probably represents your realistic upside. Kasich probably can't even manage that -- there are going to be some people pissed off that he stayed in the race too long and killed Cruz's chances.
Trump and Obama had many faults, but from day one they had followers who would accept no substitutes.
Writer's block is sad.
I have it on good authority Nikki Haley is going to primary Trump. And win.
Kasich, a solution in search of a problem. I guess now that McCain is gone the MSM desperately needs to create a new "conscience of the republican party".
Does anyone remember John Anderson? A "moderate Republican" he ran in 1980
I voted for Honest John. But only because Jimmah Catah had already conceded before I got to the polls in Idaho.
I can say with pride I've never lived in Ohio, yet I've detested Kasich long before he ran for Prezzy in 2016.
Maybe Kasich could run for Postmaster General.
The post office? Why didn't you say so?
That changes EVERYTHING.
rhhardin @ 7:37 p.m.: Very, very well said.
John Kasich and Hillary Clinton will never be President.
Yah. But imagine that they are their parties' nominees in 2020. It would be the first Presidential election in which nobody voted.
This is very dumb analysis. Distanced from reality. No one could knock trump off on the R nomination, and if they did, the nomination would be worth nothing. And, a third party similarly would have no chance becuase he D's have a 40-45% floor. Trump on his worst day would have a 30% floor. No path for third party in 2020. And, the best path for any "independent" candidate is to "steal" the R nomination in 2024, like Trump stole it in 2016.
I think the guy who will wear out Trump is Trump (assuming he is not already out on his ear.)
What is the matter with this woman (Rubin)? She was actually interesting before she got to the Post. There aren't 12 people in the country who want John Kasich to be President.
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