About three weeks ago, Mitt Romney appeared at a campaign event in Ohio, one of the nation's most important battlegrounds, alongside Gov. John Kasich (R). Some Otterbein University students, getting ready to graduate, reflected on the difficult job market, and the governor was quick to set their minds at ease.
Kasich noted a website his administration created, listing 80,000 job openings in Ohio, many of which are "exciting opportunities" for young workers, underscoring the state's growing economy.
You could almost hear Romney wince while Kasich was talking. The Republican presidential hopeful doesn't want Ohio voters talking about exciting opportunities and a growing economy; he wants Ohio voters feeling depressed and hopeless. The governor was stepping all over his ally's message.
This week, reporters in Ohio asked Kasich about the contradiction (video by way of our pal James Carter).
(Update: The video was originally published by Mark Kovac on his terrific Ohio Capital Blog. For more of Kasich's comments excerpted above, check out Mark's post from yesterday.)
Notice how the Republican governor still doesn't quite know how to deal with this. On the one hand, under President Obama, Ohio's economy is improving and its unemployment rate is dropping. Kasich doesn't want Obama to get credit -- he'd prefer to take the credit himself -- but he has a positive story to tell.
On the other hand, the governor also wants Ohioans to think Romney will rescue them from an economy that's improving. In the clip, Kasich is left saying, "I can't straighten all that out."
The problem is not limited to Ohio.
Many of the nation's key swing states -- Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Nevada, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania -- are led by Republican governors, each of whom are eager to tell their constituents that the economy is improving, jobs are being created, and there's reason for optimism.
At the same time, those same GOP governors are working to elect Romney, who is trying to tell their constituents that the economy isn't improving, jobs aren't being created, and there's reason for pessimism.
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Gee jobs are being created even with collective bargaining still in place (thanks to the voters). Just what part of this uptick in employment opportunities has to do with you Gov. K.?
Day is night. War is peace. Ignorance is power. - People will believe anything; but not everyone's a fox-zombie. Some people actually look out the window and can tell whether or not the sun is out.
I guarantee most of those jobs aren't union jobs. Ohioans watched while hundreds of thousands of jobs left the state, and mostly due to greedy Unions demanding Cadillac health benefits, etc.
Yes, how dare unions look out for the workers who actually do the work...
What's really outrageous is that these charlatan/governors will all take credit for their state's recovery when their time for reelection comes in 2014.
Romney is the type of person that applaudes the Police Department or whoever gave the order to take that first shot at Kent St. This is the kind of man that the GOP is nominating for President, he will not serve us he will throw us into the lions' den. Our Country is healthy only when all of our counterparts are healthy. Our World is healthy only when all of it's 7 counterparts are healthy. We should be busy in helping this World heal after the attacks, all of us are still here. Our Brain needs healing as well as our Heart as well as all the organs in our body, We cannot progress if even a tiny little, beautiful ladybug is suffering. We're stuck trying to help the human race, we have a long way to go. It sure would be helpful if the GOP would get on board and help the 99% of the World the 1% will surely follow. The Gop need to get on their knees and ask forgiveness for their role in hurting other human beings. After that maybe we can talk. Maybe we could work together for the better good of Humanity. Hell, we'll even pour some tea. Come together over us.
Our country needs the best available leader who will have the vision of Eisenhower to begin a jobs program which will last for decades and be funded by foreign investors with US dollars. This will provide jobs, reduce the trade deficit and promote a healthier US and world economies. Neither candidate is appealing. Hold your nose and vote your "gut feeling."
"Jobs" is clearly the hot topic right now, but nobody seems to be interested in coming up with a definition for "job", or a useful index of job value, that would add some meaning to "job" numbers. To talk job numbers is like trying to estimate the value of a jar of small change by simply counting the number of coins in the jar!