I am at least somewhat happy to see that John Kasich was elected governor of Ohio on Tuesday. Back in 2000, I was one of about six people outside Kasich’s immediate family who supported his abortive bid for the presidency. I’m pretty sure that I was the only Kasich supporter at Yale Law School at the time!
I had liked Kasich’s efforts at budget-cutting when he was Chairman of the House Budget Committee in the 1990s, which included going after farm subsidies that benefited his home state, and wasteful military spending supported by many other Republicans. By contrast I thought that both George W. Bush and John McCain were suspect on free market issues, though I still failed to foresee how bad Bush would actually turn out to be on that score. Amazingly enough, the support of an obscure law student wasn’t quite enough for Kasich to mount a serious challenge to Bush and McCain, and his campaign quickly fizzled out.
I don’t know whether Kasich would really have made a good president, or for that matter whether he’ll be an effective governor of Ohio. I haven’t followed his career closely since 2000. I will say that time hasn’t changed my view that Kasich was significantly better than Bush, though that isn’t exactly judging him by a high standard.