After roast pig, the most common food served at any political barbecue is the waffle, bathed in a syrup of soothing words. But if John Kasich runs true to form, he won't be the one dishing them out.
The blunt-spoken Ohio governor arrives in Atlanta this morning – his inaugural trip to Georgia as a potential Republican presidential candidate.
He’ll lunch with the Fulton County GOP in Sandy Springs, have a private meeting in downtown Atlanta with potential campaign contributors, and end the day with an appearance at the Walton County GOP barbecue in Monroe.
Then it’s on to South Carolina.
Look for the Ohio governor to sprinkle Newt Gingrich’s name throughout his trip. Kasich is a former 18-year congressman and was one of the former House speaker’s lieutenants back in the day.
Also look for Kasich to portray himself as the governor who pulled his Rust Belt state back from the brink of insolvency – he inherited an $8 billion deficit when he took office in 2010 – while cutting taxes by $3 billion.
If he makes a White House run, it’s likely to be under the banner of a constitutional amendment to require a balanced federal budget – another of his causes.
That’s what Kasich will want to talk about. But here are a few topics that will make for a tougher conversation today:
-- The entire city of Cleveland is treading on eggshells, following the Saturday acquittal of a police officer for his role in the 2012 fatal shooting of an unarmed black couple after a lengthy car chase. At least 137 shots were fired into the vehicle by a small army of officers.
After a relatively quiet Saturday night, Kasich said on ABC's "This Week" that people in Cleveland should be proud and that their response should serve as a model for the nation. Cleveland reportedly has reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, to fix what authorities are calling a pattern of excessive use of force. An announcement of details could come today.
-- Kasich has also become a rare Republican defender of Common Core, the multi-state standard for k-12 education, set in motion -- in part -- by Gov. Sonny Perdue. From the Washington Times:
"The governors, themselves, wrote the standards," he said. "We've implemented the standards. I didn't implement them. Obama didn't implement them … The local school boards have adopted the standards and now the curriculum is being written by local school boards."
-- Kasich was also the first of the big-state Republican governors to embrace the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. From National Public Radio earlier this month:
"I'm really not hiding behind anybody," Kasich said, adding, "The last Republican I can think of who expanded Medicaid was Ronald Reagan. OK? People tend to forget that. ... If other people don't want to take the money, that's up to them, but I got money I can bring home to Ohio. It's my money. There's no money in Washington. It's my money. It's the money of the people who live in my state."
To the specific charge from Jindal and Haley — who chose not to expand Medicaid — that he was using religion as a justification for the expansion, Kasich said, "I think all people are made in the image of God, and everybody deserves respect."
Walton County Republicans are advertising the presence of Gov. Nathan Deal at their barbecue. Deal recently signed legislation permitting the Department of Community Health to negotiate with the Obama administration over terms of a Medicaid "experiment" to help keep open rural hospitals.
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People forget that Whit Ayres, one of the keener pollsters in the country, had his start in Roswell. Now onboard with Marco Rubio, Ayres is also out with a book on what Republicans must do to win the White House in 2016. From the Dan Balz profile of the tome in the Washington Post:
In an electorate in which the white share of the vote was 72 percent, President Obama won reelection in 2012 despite losing the white vote by a bigger margin than any winning Democrat in the past. The white share of the electorate in 2016 will be a point or two smaller.
Based on estimates of the composition of the 2016 electorate, if the next GOP nominee wins the same share of the white vote as Mitt Romney won in 2012 (59 percent), he or she would need to win 30 percent of the nonwhite vote. Set against recent history, that is a daunting obstacle. Romney won only 17 percent of nonwhite voters in 2012. John McCain won 19 percent in 2008. George W. Bush won 26 percent in 2004.
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This long weekend's presidential cattle call in Oklahoma, under the guise of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, had an "SEC primary" theme. The top three from the event's straw poll (several more were bunched around 5 percent):
- Ben Carson, 25.4 percent;
- Scott Walker, 20.5 percent;
- and Ted Cruz, 16.6 percent.
The event also inspired many an SEC primary rumination, from the New York Times to the Washington Post. Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele also weighed in on what effect the stack of March 1 states will have on the GOP field, in an MSNBC op-ed:
"Moreover, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio or Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (who has held a steady lead in national polling so far) could walk away with a sizeable share of delegates in some March 1 contests, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz should win big in the Lone Star State and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul—who could be coming off a big win in New Hampshire—rides into Super Tuesday with more than something to prove."
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A long-shot idea of a bullet train linking Atlanta and Chattanooga seems to have been derailed.
Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke told The Times Free-Press there's neither the funding or the political will for the project, which was first dreamed up in 1998.
"Any kind of intercity rail doesn't happen without large-scale federal investment," Berke told the newspaper. "It's pretty clear that the federal government is not in a position right now to do large-scale infrastructure investments."
The Tennessee city has pumped about $1.3 million in local funds toward a study of the 110-mile route linking Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Chattanooga, and state and local agencies in Atlanta have put in another $2 million. That money helped lock down a $13.8 million federal grant to research the plan.
But Berke told the newspaper he hasn't heard much in the way of developments, aside from assurances that the studies are ongoing. (Another phase of studies is set to begin later this year.)
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has talked up the benefits of the link between the two cities, though he's also openly explored the idea of a high-speed train to Savannah.
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Georgia's film industry has a bullseye on its back. Gov. Nathan Deal and a handful of the state's top film industry officials held a "Georgia Night in L.A." last week for Hollywood producers to urge them to keep coming.
"We think it's a just good way for us to ... say thank you to the industry for their presence and their economic impact on our state and to get to know them on a personal basis," Deal said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. From the story:
California last year agreed to triple annual funding for the film and TV tax credit program to $330 million in the hopes of keeping more production from fleeing to places like Georgia. The new program, which provides tax credits up to 25%, kicked off this month when the California Film Commission accepted applications for TV projects.
About 40 film and TV projects are now shooting in Georgia, and about a half-dozen new film studios in planning stages or under development.
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While you were on the beach, the U.S. Senate was doing backflips trying unsuccessfully to extend the PATRIOT Act. From the Associated Press:
The main stumbling block was a House-passed provision to end the NSA's bulk collection of domestic phone records. Instead, the records would remain with telephone companies subject to a case-by-case review.
The White House has pressured the Senate to back the House bill, which drew an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote last week and had the backing of GOP leaders, Democrats and the libertarian-leaning members.
But the Senate blocked the bill on a vote of 57-42, short of the 60-vote threshold to move ahead. That was immediately followed by rejection of a two-month extension to the existing programs. The vote was 54-45, again short of the 60-vote threshold.
The Senate returns Sunday afternoon, with just hours before the law expires, because filibustering Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., would not allow even a one-day extension.
Georgia Republican Sens. Johnny Isakson and David Perdue were in favor of extending the existing law and voted against the House's NSA restrictions.
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