Did I ever write here that John Kasich stood out among the Republican Beauty Contest (aka presidential primaries) participants by actually showing some knowledge in a few areas? The kind of knowledge that presidential candidates are supposed to have. Where Iran might be found on the map and other super-important high-level foreign policy knowledge.
That might have made him more dangerous in some alternative reality where people don't vote with their gonads, but it's a real negative for Kasich in our reality. On the other hand, he scores lots of points with the religious extremists of his party by standing firm for forced-birth everywhere.
That is not new, of course. In 2014 governor Kasich signed a bill which prohibits rape counselors from telling rape victims in Ohio that abortion is available for them. And now he has signed a bill which defunds Planned Parenthood in Ohio:
Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed a bill Sunday prohibiting the state from contracting for health services with any organization that performs or promotes abortions, blocking government funds to Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood isn't explicitly named in the legislation, but the law will prevent more than $1 million in funding from the state health department from going to the nonprofit to fund programs such as HIV testing, health screenings and prevention of violence against women.
That's our John.
And this, too, is our John:
The guy who signed a bill defunding Planned Parenthood this weekend was full of himself today.
Speaking at a town hall in Fairfax, VA about his first election at age 26, Kasich said, "We just got an army of people, and many women who left their kitchens to go out and go door to door and to put yard signs up for me all over."
That was in 1978, of course. The Kasich campaign has responded (link via Wonkette) to those who see Kasich hopping about with one well-shod foot in his mouth by pointing out that in those days the world was different:
So. It was the stay-at-home mothers or wives Kasich talks about in that quote, and, indeed, the labor market participation rate for women aged 25-54 was lower in 1978, somewhere between 55% (1975) and 64% (1980), probably closer to the latter figure, while the 2014 figure for the same age group of women is 73.9%.
Draw your own conclusions from that. I concluded that Kasich's 1978 campaign didn't seem to appeal to the majority of women who were then already in the labor market. And then I point out that Kasich said "women," not "stay-at-home-mothers" or "stay-at-home-wives". And he said "their kitchens." Mr. Kasich's foot remains sternly lodged behind his snappers.
Because he is as tone-deaf as almost all Republican politicians.
That took care of the kitchens-part in the title of this post. What about the frying pans? Well, this post is a gentle tap from an imaginary frying pan, and Kasich just jumped out of his political frying pan into the fire.