With Kasich: Always a fire drill exit

Given the fact that it's a presidential election year and Republicans have gagged over  President Obama since Day One  seven years ago, it wasn't surprising that they had nothing good to say about his  State of the Union message.  But the most curious response came from Gov.  Kasich,  who chose the occasion to promote his own candidacy with a prepared campaign statement  that cast him as ...well, a futurist. It was a perfect airball.   Here it is:

"Eight years from now I look forward to giving a State of the Union that describes a stronger, safer and more united America.  We're going to cut taxes, balance the budget and get  government out of the way so every American can rise."

No one has ever accused Kasich of being a shrinking violet about his self-inflated credentials. But this feathery trajectory into the future is so pretentious that it doesn't even hold up as mere campaign rhetoric.

But Kasich has a reputation for  swerving away from anything that might pain  his presence as a can-do political figure, swerving and dodging whatever he doesn't want to confront. For example as relayed by Plunderbund from the Des Moines Register,  the governor, turned up in Iowa where he  was asked by a reporter about the Oregon standoff between the Feds and the militia.

Kasich said he'd didn't know anything about it.  Huh?   Never heard a thing about it.

"I'm not familiar with it. OK. I've got to get out of here."

He then rushed out.

Kasich's spokesman,, Rob. Nichols, whose tough job is much like trying to grow grass in the Sahara,  said the incident was an "error in staff briefing"  But as the Plunderbund writer observed:

"Gov. Kasich routinely claims he's above politics and doesn't read newspapers, blogs and any other news source that mentions their beloved, gimmicky governor."

I can help:  President Obama gave his final State of the Union speech Tuesday night.  It would be a fair guess that someone who reads newspapers wrote your meaningless response  over the weekend.

But who would remember something like that eight years from now?