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

Ohio Gov. John Kasich has recently has garnered speculation regarding whether he'll make a run for the White House in 2016 amid a growing field of potential Republican contenders.

Here is what six pundits have said about the 62-year-old swing state governor, who has also served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

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1. In a Nov. 8, 2014, interview with radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt, NBC's Chuck Todd said Kasich has the support of the financial elite, or the "money."

"I think the money likes Kasich," Todd told Hewitt. "The Kasich résumé is the perfect gubernatorial résumé — a little Washington experience from the 90s when it seemed like ... more stuff got done, and also maybe a touch of foreign policy, at least touching the foreign policy issue a little bit as a member of Congress, and now being from arguably the second most important swing state in the country."

2. Unlike many Republicans, Kasich controversially implemented the Medicaid expansion offered by the U.S. government under Obamacare, though he did it through executive action. That prompted longtime friend and GOP strategist Terry Casey to tell the National Review Online: "It was important because it said to some people that Kasich is not just a one-size-fits-all ideological conservative."

3. In a July 9, 2014, opinion piece for the San Francisco Chronicle, columnist Debra J. Saunders listed Kasich as an "interesting Republican with gravitas," along with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Naming Kasich in that manner was part of column in which she felt it was time for former GOP nominee Mitt Romney to not muddy the waters with another bid.

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4. In a profile of Kasich for The Washington Post from Oct. 14, 2014, reporter Dan Balz quoted Yuval Levin, editor of the conservative journal National Affairs and a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Levin said via e-mail that "most of what (Kasich) has done has involved a more coherent combination of conservative ideas about how to solve problems with a broader and wider sense of what problems require attention than many other Republicans have, particularly when it comes to the challenges facing the poor and the burdens faced by working families."

5. Weeks after Kasich's Ohio re-election, Matt A. Mayer, CEO of Opportunity Ohio and Chief Operational Officer of The Liberty Foundation of America, wrote for Politico that his understanding of Ohio showed more weaknesses than strengths. "If Kasich chooses to run for president, he'll face a more complicated landscape than a re-election against an underfunded self-defeating nobody. Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Rick Perry, and Walker are well-known successful governors who can raise a lot of money. And, unluckily for him, the Republicans nationally are better than the Democrats in Ohio."

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