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Ohio Gov. John Kasich shows understanding of race relations and then doesn't
On the side
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, state Rep. Sean O’Brien of Bazetta, D-63rd, and Mahoning Valley business leaders will meet Tuesday with Cuban officials in Washington, D.C., to discuss potential trade between this area and that country.
The United States officially reestablished diplomatic relations with Cuba on Monday after a 54-year economic embargo.
“It’s a great opportunity for the Mahoning Valley,” O’Brien said of meeting with Cuban officials. “We’ll be ahead of the curve. It’s a win for us. They need so much infrastructure and technology. We want to discuss what can we do to help set up trade deals between our local businesses and those in Cuba.”
“The meeting is to set up some contacts with interested business people from here with interested business people from there,” said Pat Lowry, a Ryan spokesman.
O’Brien said he is planning to put together a group of local business leaders to visit Cuba in October.
“It makes sense to go to Cuba to see what they have and determine what they need,” he said.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich discussed a lot of things during his nearly 45-minute speech declaring his candidacy for president.
And I mean a lot of things.
Kasich is known to go off on tangents and lose some of his focus. He did it during Tuesday’s speech, but it wasn’t as bad as some in the national media portrayed it.
The speech had a central theme: Kasich has spent his entire political career proving people wrong, and has the best and most experience of any of the candidates seeking to be president.
“I have the experience and the testing, the testing which shapes you and prepares you for the most important job in the world,” he said. “And I believe I know how to work and help restore this great United States.”
Right now, Kasich is a blip in the national Republican presidential polls though those were taken before his Tuesday announcement. He finds himself on the line between being the 10th and final candidate at the first Republican presidential debate in Cleveland on Aug. 6 and not making the cut.
Possible embarrassment
It’s important, but not critical, that Kasich be on that stage for the Fox News debate from his home state. Not being there is more of an embarrassment than a political setback because with 10 candidates talking it’s going to be difficult to set yourself apart. Of course, Donald Trump is likely to purposely say something outrageous to garner more of the attention he so has desperately craved for decades.
Trump took some of the steam out of Kasich’s presidential announcement when he gave out the cellphone number of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, another Republican presidential candidate, during a speech the same day.
To Kasich’s credit, he spoke about subjects in his speech that many of his fellow Republican presidential aspirants don’t want to discuss.
Take this passage toward the beginning as an example.
“How about if you are a member of the minority community, an African-American? You wonder the system, I think, sometimes doesn’t just work for me, but sometimes I feel like that system works against me. And you think about the troubles that many of our African-Americans still face today in a world where we have worked to provide equal rights and opportunities. Sometimes they are not so sure, and I don’t blame them.”
Pretty powerful stuff, and definitely an opening to separate himself from the rest of the Republican field.
Kasich then said, “Or how about all of us? We pick up the paper. It’s Chattanooga, it’s Fort Hood, it’s ISIS. Are we safe?”
However, the next lines in his speech makes me wonder if the governor is paying attention to what’s happening in this country with race relations.
“But I have to tell you, as serious as these are – and they are very serious – we have had a lot worse, much worse in this country. Think about it, the Civil War. You remember reading about it? I mean, it’s not just neighbors fighting against neighbors, but it was even family members, kin fighting against one another, and killing one another on a battlefield right in America.”
OK, that was out of left field.
‘Racial violence’
But then he followed by saying: “How about the racial violence that we experienced in this country? The early days of television when they put the dogs and the gas and the batons on people of another color. Or the world wars, where many in our families never came home, leaving widows and children without a dad. Or the Depression, the Depression. Ask your grandfather, ask your mom and dad about that Depression.”
It was as if Kasich had some sort of understanding of the escalating racial tensions that exist today in this country, decided to mention it and then kind of dismiss it as not that bad.
All Kasich had to do is look to Cleveland and the protests that occurred after the May 23 not-guilty verdict in the trial of police officer Michael Brelo, who had been charged with voluntary manslaughter in the death of two people.
After the verdict, Kasich issued a statement, and followed that up a day later on ABC’s “This Week,” praising the peaceful protests in Cleveland.
So what was he thinking Tuesday during his announcement?