MountainMornings

And Elvis is still in the living room! It’s hard to be a middle aged white guy running for President and remain off-script. Poor John Kasich. He was in Cville yesterday afternoon at the Miller Center, but that morning in NOVA he was just speaking his own adorable mind to a not/quite/as/large/as/Trump crowd:

“How did I get elected?” said the Republican presidential candidate at a campaign event. “I didn’t have anybody for me. We just got an army of people, and many women who left their kitchens to go out and to go door to door to put up yard signs for me.”  http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2016/02/john-kasich-women-supporters-kitchens

Of course he immediately tried to clarify that idea, as if a Disney angel had whispered in his ear, “You need to clarify that kitchen comment sir.” Kasich continued to refer to his early days running for the Ohio State Senate, the year was 1979. And it was Ohio! Back then I was setting up a house on Windsor Mountain in the Berkshires. I could barely fit in our tiny kitchen since the Bride was born that year. In fact, her crib was set up in the dining area right next to the kitchen, and across from our bedroom. We were heating with wood and I started my writing career with a story about “Guns in the Woods.”

Today I just push a button for the hearth to light up, I’m still writing about guns unfortunately, and I don’t take offense when a Republican tries to tell us he had alot of women supporters back in the day. They weren’t in binders after all, he had “an army” of ’em. Maybe we didn’t dress like Beyonce’s Black Panther fly girls, maybe we wore mom jeans, but hey the guy appreciates women! Granted most of my friends in MA were Democrats, the state is a bastion of libertarian and progressive ideas.

And if I had to vote for a Republican, this Ohio statesman would be it. On the GOP debate stage, Kasich is the only adult in the room. That bears repeating – the. only. adult. His interview at the Miller Center was broadcast live on American Forum TV, http://millercenter.org/americanforum, and people were live Tweeting. Though Bob and I didn’t attend, here are some of the other highlights from his Cville debut:

“Washington is a Dinosaur.” “I am not a moderate.” “There would be no judicial abortion litmus test.” “Government is not innovative.”

And his answer to why he is not more robust on gun control, “Because it wouldn’t work.” He took the same GOP detour to mental health – standard operating procedure. That was when I lost him to the Twittersphere. Right after an Uber driver ran amok in Kalamazoo, with a house full of guns. Do we want a President who doesn’t see the excessive loss of American life due to gun violence as not even worthy of a solution? I mean, talk about a judicial litmus test!!

31 Americans die each day due to gun violence, more than 30,000 a year. http://www.bradycampaign.org/about-gun-violence

But Kasich went completely off my Democratic radar when he brought up Obamacare…again…”Appeal Obamacare. It is not controlling costs. Return Medicaid back to states.” Remember readers, “states rights” is code for business as usual with racism as its subtext. You can subdue voter registration, and close women’s health clinics if you live in the right red state. I sometimes wonder why Republicans even want to run for office when they hate the Federal government so much.

Bob and I voted early in our Primary because we will be away on Super Tuesday. VA is an open state, meaning we could choose any party to vote for in the primary. Bob was kidding me, saying he might just switch and vote Kasich on the red side because we happen to like both our Democratic contenders. Let the chips fall where they may on the Hill, or with the Bern. But thankfully he didn’t. I’ll never tell who we picked