John Kasich 2016: What 5 Liberal Pundits Say About GOP Presidential Hopeful

Ohio Gov. John Kasich has expressed interest a run for the White House in 2016 amid a growing field of potential Republican contenders, and liberals have plenty to say about the 62-year-old politician.

Here are five quotes from liberal pundits about Kasich:

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1. "The great thing about John Kasich if you're a conservative Republican is that he has the advantages of Rick Santorum without the insanity. He has all the pluses. He's working class. He's been a successful executive. He just won a big re-election. ... I think Kasich is the sweet spot. It's Ohio. Republicans have to carry Ohio. They're having their convention there. It's perfect for him." – MSNBC host Chris Matthews, on Nov. 4, 2014, after Kasich won re-election.

2. In November, Kasich was quoted by The Associated Press as saying that a repeal of Obamacare "isn't gonna happen," and added that it has made real improvements in people's lives. In response, liberal commentator Jonathan Chait wrote for New York magazine: "There are certain rules you have to play by in order to be a part of the Republican Party today, and one of the most important is never to say anything nice about Obamacare. Even if you are trying to push the party toward the center on Obamacare, you must pay fealty to the belief that the law is horrible and must be replaced."

3. Under the headline, "John Kasich: The GOP's hobbled 2016 Dark Horse," Daily Beastcolumnist W. James Antle wrote in November 2014: "If Kasich emerges as the establishment candidate, like Mitt Romney, or cultivates stronger ties to the Christian right, like Mike Huckabee, he could perhaps overcome fiscal conservatives' skepticism. George W. Bush brought the establishment and the Christian right together in 2000 and won in a walk. But Kasich doesn't exactly have his soul brother's political profile."

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4. In an April 1998 piece for The New York Times Magazine, chief correspondent R.W. Apple Jr. wrote about the then-U.S. House of Representative: "Kasich wields his ax much less selectively than do most of his party colleagues. He flails away at federal social programs — including Medicare, which he has proposed from time to time to subject to a means test. He also challenges what he calls corporate welfare and military waste."

5. For a few days in August 2014, Toledo, Ohio, went without drinking water after an outbreak of toxic algae blooms appearing in Lake Erie. MSNBC talk show host Ed Schultz ("The Ed Show") took the chance to further paint the GOP as the anti-science party, saying, "This is the problem politicians face. Uneducated, anti-regulation, science-denying Republicans who couldn't care less about the environment."

Shultz slammed Kasich, who supported lifting the water ban: "This is a serious situation and the bottom line is the experts are saying that it is getting worse. There wasn't a bottle of water available in the city of Toledo, Ohio, over the weekend. Is that what we have to look forward to in this country because we have science denying Republicans who are making policy?"

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