ONUMBA.COM, USA – With all the republicans running for the White House, it is hard to say who is going to emerge as the frontrunner from that stampede to duke it out with the presumed Democratic frontrunner and former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.
But one thing that is easy to conclude is this: running for the White House on the republican side is starting to look more like Boston marathon than a presidential contest considering the burgeoning crowd of candidates getting into the race.
Just recently, four more Republicans entered the race. Highly touted pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, former New York governor George Pataki, South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham and real estate developer Donald Trump, all threw their long shot hats in the ring, hyping their republican credentials and bringing the total number of Republican presidential candidates to …..a lot.
The smorgasbord of choice of candidates is good for democracy. One notably good thing about having a lot of candidates in the race, aside from the many free-for-all brawls that will occur to make it very exciting, is that there’s no clear, strong frontrunner, which essentially makes it a wide open contest, which in turn gives each candidate a chance to possibly make a strong case for why they should emerge as one of the elite contestants.
Perhaps, that’s why Ohio Governor John Kasich is thinking about getting into the race, too.
But Kasich may also be positioning himself to rise in case the stronger candidates with broader household names stumble badly. He recently formed the ‘New Day for America’ PAC.
The governor, who in 2014, ruthlessly clobbered his Democratic rival Ed Fitzgerald in his reelection contest, has said that he is seriously thinking about running for the White House. Obviously, he continues to travel to early primary states to test the waters, and see how his message resonates outside Ohio.
Kasich’s recent reelection hurrah is an indication that his message resonated quite well in Ohio, a presidential battleground. But will it resonate the same way outside the state?
“We’ll see,” said Kasich, who is also traveling to see how well he can compete for donors, adding, “We’ll see whether I can have the resources.”
And that’s really the bottom line. It’s really no rocket science. Whether or not Kasich runs will depend a great deal on how successful he thinks he will be in elbowing and muscling his way to the front row of the upper crust of contenders, which in many ways, is a direct result of how well he is liked in South Carolina, where he visited last week, in New Hampshire, where he was recently and is scheduled to go back; and in Iowa, where he is booked to speak on June 24.
It goes without saying, Ohioans are eager to know his intentions. The wait will soon be over. Last week, Kasich said that he will publicly announce his plans in July.
If Kasich decides to run, he will join a budding shoal of candidates that currently include former Governor of Florida State Jeb Bush, U.S Senators Marco Rubio of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Governor Rick Perry of Texas and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
This is a partial list, by the way.
