COLUMBUS – The old — and some say, the real — John Kasich is back.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
The governor known by Ohioans for his periodic blunt assessments and sharp-tongued criticism of opponents suddenly has brought the same style to his lagging Republican presidential campaign.
Kasich had been reluctant to criticize others, even Democrat Hillary Clinton, while on the campaign trail, portraying himself as the “grown-up in the room” and above the name-calling.
But that changed on Tuesday afternoon in his hometown of Westerville, where the newly aggressive candidate called out leading GOP candidates and proclaimed, “I’m done being polite and listening to this nonsense.”
He says he wants to provide a “reality check” to some of the wild rhetoric and unworkable ideas of his Republican presidential rivals.
Speaking to about 200 supporters Tuesday at a send-off rally in Westerville, Kasich said GOP candidates’ pronouncements on Medicare, Medicaid, immigration and taxes are enough to scare seniors, children and families.
“I want you to know I’m fed up. I’m sick and tired of listening to this nonsense and I’m going to have to call it like it is in this race,” Kasich said during seven minutes of remarks that shoved aside his kinder-and-gentler tactics of the past four months.
Kasich’s remarks come as he prepares to join nine other candidates at Wednesday’s debate hosted by CNBC in Boulder, Colorado.
Polling in the bottom tier of candidates nationally, Kasich seemed to signal that he may attempt to shake things up — gaining some attention and headlines — tonight.
Kasich called Donald Trump’s undocumented-immigrant proposals “crazy.” And he said Ben Carson’s entitlement and flat-tax ideas make no sense.
Kasich had called Trump out on the real estate mogul’s claim that his influence had convinced Ford Motor Company to relocate some pickup truck manufacturing jobs to Ohio from Mexico, but the automaker’s CEO said Trump is wrong in saying the company scrapped plans to build a plant in Mexico because of Trump’s pressure.
Mark Fields said Ford has not talked to the billionaire businessman or made any recent changes to its manufacturing plans.
“Facts are stubborn things, and at Ford we’re proud of the facts,” he said. “Unfortunately, we suspect the facts are getting lost in the politics.”
“You don’t produce jobs through bombast… we were able to get Ford because we have a great workforce,” Kasich told FOX New Channel’s Megyn Kelly.
The decision to expand to Ohio had been made in 2011, Kasich and Fields said.
The Republican candidates gather for their third debate amid fresh volatility in an already chaotic race.
Carson is surging past Trump in Iowa and one-time front-runner Jeb Bush faces pressure to prove he’s still a viable candidate.
Carson took a narrow 26 to 22 percentage point lead over Trump in a CBS News/”New York Times” nationwide poll released Tuesday, dislodging Trump from the top spot for the first time in months.