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Kasich Campaign Press Release - Yahoo News: Jeb Leaves a Vacuum. Who Fills It?

September 17, 2015

Yahoo News: Jeb leaves a vacuum. Who fills it?

By Matt Bai — Sept. 17, 2015

"If you were in Washington watching the Republican debate last night, you might have felt a small tilt in the floor, or heard the plates rattling gently in their cupboards.

That was the sound of the Republican establishment shifting its collective weight away from Jeb Bush — and inching a little bit closer to their best available alternative.

And no, it's not Ben Carson or Carly Fiorina..."

"You can just about hear the footsteps of ruling Republicans as they tiptoe away from Bush and start to rethink this whole thing. Parties, like nature, abhor a vacuum.

The question you hear now is: Who's the fallback?

Chris Christie seems too damaged. Rand Paul seems too erratic. Scott Walker seems too much like Scott Walker.

To hear governing Republicans tell it, there are only two "nominate-able" candidates on the stage, aside from Bush. One is Marco Rubio, who has performed well in the debates, but who has yet to find a compelling theme or a foothold in New Hampshire, where the establishment figures it will have to stop Trump or whomever emerges from the purity test in Iowa.

The other is John Kasich. And he's the guy Bush's ought to be worried about.

It was Kasich, and not Bush, who scolded the debate moderator, CNN's Jake Tapper, early in the debate for not focusing on policy. It was Kasich who forced himself into the foreign policy debate from the edge of the stage a few minutes later, refusing to be silenced. It was Kasich who dared to make a spirited defense of globalism, vowing to rebuild foreign alliances.

Fiorina had the flashier moments and the best night. But Kasich did exactly what he had to do: He came off as a strong, capable alternative for party loyalists considering a change of direction.

Washington Republicans remember Kasich well from his years in Congress. They remember him, in a lot of cases, as impetuous and immature.

But now he's the most successful sitting governor in the field, and he has already surged into double digits in New Hampshire. So far, at least, he has managed to project Midwestern sobriety and a comfort with himself.

And establishment Republicans are already whispering not so quietly about the potential of a Kasich-Rubio ticket, if that's what it takes to dispatch both Trump and Clinton..."

"By the end of the year, someone will have emerged as the anti-Trump or anti-Carson in the field, the candidate who makes the establishment case that experience and electability are assets, rather than evils, when it comes to wining back the White House.

That candidate could still be Jeb Bush. He's got time to steady himself, and plenty of cash.

But opportunity knocks for Ohio's governor. And last night, once again, Bush left the door wide open."

Read more here.

John Kasich, Kasich Campaign Press Release - Yahoo News: Jeb Leaves a Vacuum. Who Fills It? Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/313239

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