Louis Capozzi | The no-brainer endorsement

Citizen Capozzi | Citizen Capozzi endorses John Kasich, but then begins to actually think.

By Louis Capozzi 03/23/16 11:39pm

My endorsement is a no-brainer decision: John Kasich.

Of the three remaining Republican candidates, John Kasich is undoubtedly the most qualified, having served 18 years in Congress and five years as the governor of Ohio. In contrast, Ted Cruz has spent a mere three years as a senator while Donald Trump hasn’t held elected office for a single day.

Further, Kasich has serious proposals to address entitlement reform, our national debt, healthcare and education. Simultaneously, he has avoided the extreme positions embraced by Trump and Cruz, like the deportation of millions of illegal immigrants or the targeted patrolling of Muslim neighborhoods.

Perhaps most refreshingly, Kasich has run a singularly positive campaign, accompanied by a hopeful message and respect for all people. Once in a while, when listening to Kasich, I forget about Trump and Hillary Clinton and feel optimistic about 2016.

This optimism has made Kasich popular at Penn, where he earned The Daily Pennsylvanian’s endorsement and easily won the Penn Caucuses, a mock election hosted by the Government and Politics Association. And he’s not just popular here. Over 60 percent of voters in his home state — and crucial swing state — of Ohio like him, and polls consistently show him beating Hillary Clinton in national head-to-head matchups.

Just think: We could have an experienced president with good ideas and consistent ethics. Really, endorsing Kasich is a no-brainer.

But it’s also a no-brainer in another respect. Supporting Kasich doesn’t require serious use of the brain.

Kasich’s chances of being the Republican nominee are only slightly better than deceased president Gerald Ford’s. It is mathematically impossible for Kasich to win enough delegates to win the nomination before the Republican National Convention. Acknowledging this, Kasich says mathematicians should “take a chill pill,” claiming that a brokered convention — during which GOP delegates will hand him the nomination — is inevitable.

If the Republican delegates do somehow hand him the nomination, Kasich will need millions of chill pills to placate the angry mobs of disenfranchised voters that supported Trump and Cruz. Fortunately for our nation’s pharmaceutical industry, it’s hard to imagine that Trump and Cruz’s delegates will vote for Kasich. A clear majority of the delegates will be representing Trump and Cruz, chosen by an electorate that overwhelmingly desires a political outsider. Perhaps Kasich believes that the fumes in the convention’s smoke-filled rooms will make these delegates dizzy enough to forget their voters back home.

The danger with no-brainer decisions is that you sometimes don’t fully think them through.

Supporting John Kasich essentially ensures that Donald Trump will win a majority of delegates before the convention. That’s why Mitt Romney has been campaigning for Cruz, telling them, “A vote for John Kasich is a vote for Donald Trump.” Romney is right: Kasich can’t win, and he divides the vote enough to deny Cruz.

If Kasich stays in the race, expect Trump to continue dividing and conquering, as he is likely to sweep the Mid-Atlantic and West Coast states with a divided field. When this happens, Trump will have enough delegates to be the GOP nominee.

At that point, no-brainer decisions will no longer suffice for Republicans.

They will have to consider whether to hold their noses and vote for Trump, a man with no political experience or substantive policy knowledge. Or they can vote for Hillary Clinton, who has made it clear she will appoint judges to the Supreme Court who will fit the Constitution to her leftist agenda and threaten the separation of powers.

They will have to ponder voting for a man who has been a Democrat for years and mocked many central elements of the Republican Party’s platform. Or they can vote for a current Democrat who promises to increase the federal minimum wages, raise taxes and impose more bureaucratic regulations.

For many Republicans, these decisions will be agonizing. At that point, GOP voters probably won’t be able to support an experienced, ethical candidate with a positive vision for the country.

Since Republicans will have to use their brains this fall, they might as well start using them now. Think about it.

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