Former Fox News Host Promises to 'Right the Ship' as Ohio Gov.

Former Fox News host and congressman John Kasich announced that he hopes to replace Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland in next year's election, and his approach, at first glance, might look familiar.



Change. Renewal. Unity. Prosperity. "A New Way. A New Day."

That message mixed with lofty campaign promises and a killer Web presence are what helped President Barack Obama win the White House, and Kasich, a Republican, doesn't seem to be above the idea of taking a page from the Obama campaign playbook. Kasich's change, however, is of a different kind.

From the Columbus Dispatch:

"We were in the ditch before we got here, and now we're deeper in the ditch," Kasich said. "I can tell you under this governor and these programs, we're not going to come out of the ditch."

Kasich said Strickland is "a nice guy," but added that "If you had a house on the river and the flood's coming, he's going to show up Saturday morning with a box of doughnuts and a pot of coffee and still sing Kumbaya, hold hands and watch your house float right down the river."

The former nine-term congressman and Fox television host said he would provide different leadership by "skinnying down" the size of government, phasing out the state's income tax over time and attracting more high-tech jobs to the state.

"We can right this ship; we can fix this," Kasich said, noting the state has lost 293,300 jobs since Strickland took office in January 2007 through April and the state's jobless rate reached double figures in April for the first time in 25 years.

His web presence is stellar -- especially for a Republican. His Facebook page is always updated and he (or his staff) seems to have picked up Twitter a little quicker than I have. A former Ohio state senator and U.S. representative, Kasich appeared often on Fox News until his resignation last month. He most prominently served as a fill-in for Fox News' Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor and at one point hosted his very own Fox News show.

We probably won't hear much about those parts of Kasich's resume, but there is one section that Ohio Democrats began to exploit before Kasich even announced his gubernatorial candidacy. After leaving his seat in Congress, Kasich joined Lehman Brothers as a managing director in its investment banking group. Lehman Brothers was of course the fourth largest Wall Street investment firm in the country before it fell into bankruptcy late last year, shedding over 20,000 jobs.

"Ohio doesn't need a governor from Wall Street,'' said Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern. "Ohio needs a governor who will fight every day for our families on Main Street. While John Kasich was working for the greedy and powerful interests at Lehman Brothers, Gov. (Ted) Strickland was working hard for the people of Ohio.''

Republicans including Kasich are quick to point out that Ohio has lost nearly 300,000 jobs since Strickland took office. Promises to overhaul Ohio's education system have gone unfulfilled until recently, as well. Support for his new plan has been minimal.

Both attacks seem baseless. Kasich's employment, along with the tens of thousands of others, made little impact on the firm's failure. On the flip side, Strickland can hardly be blamed for a global recession that has cost Ohio all those jobs.

During his time in Congress in the 80's, Kasich made a reputation for himself as a true fiscal conservative, criticizing wasteful spending, becoming a leading conservative voice. Eventually, he worked his way up to chairman of the U.S. House Budget Committee and played a major role in bringing the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 to President Clinton's desk.

"Change" Obama style seems to involve bigger government, more government control of the private sector, extreme spending, and bailouts and bonuses for failure. Kasich's version moves away from that recent trend, at least in his state. If this message catches hold in Ohio, it might serve as the first glimpse of the conservative resurgence some have been waiting for.