Ohio Gov. John Kasich has scored an extraordinary new high in the Buckeye State, with a new
Quinnipiac University poll giving him a 62 percent job approval rating.
That means more than six in 10 Ohio residents like Kasich's leadership — his highest approval rating ever. Only 29 percent said they disapproved.
Still, Quinnipiac's poll of Ohio Republicans found Kasich badly trails both Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson in the race for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.
The billionaire developer has the wide lead with 23 percent, followed by the retired pediatric neurosurgeon's 18 percent. Kasich comes in third place with 13 percent.
Appearing on Fox News' "America's Newsroom" on Thursday morning, Kasich was pleased with his popularity rating, but dismissed all the polls as temporary readings.
"Polls go up and down," he said. "They always fluctuate. Look, the most important thing in a campaign, I have been in a lot of them, is not the headline, it is what's underneath."
In a new TV ad now being aired, Kasich, who as a congressman spent 18 years on the House Armed Services Committee, touts his foreign policy muscle.
"Who is it that's got the foreign policy experience to deal with what has become an increasingly complicated world?" Kasich asks. "No one really has that experience, except for maybe one."