A Washington Post poll conducted in September had Governor Kasich’s positive rating above 50 percent, and a Quinnipiac poll had his approval rating above 40 percent in December. This was up from a low of around 30 percent when he was embroiled in the fight over collective bargaining early in his term.
Why the rebound for Governor Kasich?
The answer might be Keynesian economics and President Obama. According to Keynesian economic theory, in times of economic stress the government should undertake activist policies to help stabilize a struggling economy. That is exactly what President Obama did early in Kasich’s term as Governor when the President undertook policies to help states by funding infrastructure improvements as well as saving the auto industry which has a strong presence in Ohio. It was these policies which kept Ohio’s unemployment rate lower than the national average and helped the turnaround toward an economic recovery in the state.
No more proof of the benefits of the President’s policies than Governor Kasich himself. This is what he had to say when discussing the state’s improvement with Matt Bai in an article for the New York Times: “What’s important to me is that there are now more than 94,000 families who are better off,” he said. “I don’t care what the reason is. I don’t care if it’s because of some little green man on Mars.”
Or, maybe, the President of the United States who some in the Republican Party consider a little green man from mars.
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