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What the pundits are saying about John Kasich now

Enquirer staff

Ohio Gov. John Kasich has received a burst of national media attention since his second-place finish in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. And with that attention comes the pontifications of the pundits.

From a CNN writer calling Kasich "the breakout star" of the primary to conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh referring to Kasich's performance as "a one-off," the range of viewpoints about what's next for Kasich is wide.

Here's a sampling:

Jim Geraghty, National Review:

Way to go, New Hampshire. Your chosen alternative to the Trump colossus is the political-campaign equivalent of a basic-cable rerun.

If you feel like you’ve seen John Kasich’s 2016 campaign before, you’re probably thinking of Kasich strategist John Weaver’s other efforts . . . the 2000 and 2008 campaigns of John McCain, where he pitched himself as a different kind of Republican, more focused on doing what’s right than what the rest of his party thinks . . . and Jon Huntsman’s 2012 bid, where he pitched himself as a different kind of Republican, more focused on . . . wait, wasn’t Marco Rubio supposed to be the repetitive one? Yes, out of all the options, New Hampshire Republicans and independents chose to give a boost to Kasich, the favorite Republican candidate of the New York Times editorial board and Joy Behar.

Tweet from Julie Roginsky, Fox News contributor:

@JohnKasich has done very well in New Hampshire because he parked himself in New Hampshire.

Chris Cillizza, The Fix blog, Washington Post:

Kasich's strength in New Hampshire could well be his undoing as the race moves south and westward; his crossover appeal as a non-partisan problem solver will play far less well in, say South Carolina than it did in the Granite State. But, that's a worry for tomorrow for Kasich. At this point, he's got to be happy that he even has a tomorrow to worry about in this race.

Gov. John Kasich speaks to a large crowd in Concord, N.H., after becoming second in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.

Ross Douthat, New York Times:

…Kasich claimed second place without doing any better than Jon Huntsman did in 2012.

Tweet from Geraldo Rivera: 

I don't know where he goes from here...what happens in the middle of the road? You get roadkill.

Glenn Thrush, Politico:

No candidate was a more natural fit for the cranky, look-me-in-the-eye, middle-road maple-sap Republicans here than the Ohio governor. He seemed like a native, holding over 100 town halls, and was so relaxed about the whole thing he took time off the trail during a Friday mini blizzard to pelt reporters with snowballs.

The question now: Is he a one-state pony? He’s likely to be a cellar dweller in South Carolina and several upcoming states, but if his big second-place finish translates into a string of decent fundraising days, he might stick around for the good stuff: the March 8 Michigan primary and the winner-take-all contest in his home state a week later.

Tweet on Tuesday night from longtime President Obama adviser David Axelrod:

Much different tone from @JohnKasich tonight than any of the previous speakers. Reflective & touching.

E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post:

If Trump offered extremism, Kasich — whose views are actually quite conservative — campaigned on moderation. If Trump offered anger and harshness, the Ohio governor spoke of unity and healing. In a very different key, Kasich was running as much against the two-faced practice of Washington Republicans as Trump was.

Tweet from Dan Pfeiffer, another former Obama adviser:

After Rubio's short circuit, Kasich is quickly becoming the candidate that Dem operatives least want to run against.”

Laura Reston, New Republic:

In a brilliant reading of the New Hampshire electorate, he bet that voters would grow tired of the relentlessly negative ads and the candidates who launched them—so tired that they would support Kasich, whose main selling point is his dogged adherence to positivity.

Rush Limbaugh:

I mean, Kasich was a one-off.  He won second place. The attention paid to the second, third, and fourth place finishers last night in the media was stunning.  I'd never seen that much attention paid to people second, third, and fourth. It's because Trump ran away with it.  And so that was the only drama there was, and then what that all meant.  And Kasich coming in second place makes sense.  It's the only place he's been campaigning.  He been going to town halls. He's been going to diners.

He had to say the other day that he's further left than Hillary Clinton.  He had to say the other day that he's effectively a Democrat here and he's running around acting like one.  We go to South Carolina next where he doesn't have any infrastructure in place and so forth, where people like Ted Cruz have been planning for South Carolina and the SEC primary and Super Tuesday on March 1st since the get-go of this.

Gregory Krieg, CNN:

John Kasich could be the breakout star of the New Hampshire primary. He placed second in the GOP contest to Donald Trump. The least you could do is start pronouncing his name the right way.

The correct way to say the Ohio governor's last name, as he explained to TheSkimm, is "Kay-sick. It rhymes with basic."

The wrong way: Kasich as Kay-Sitch.