Arnold Schwarzenegger talks like he wants his old buddy John Kasich to make another run for the White House.
"John, get back to Washington and kick some butt and take care of this mess, once and for all. We can't take it anymore," the actor and former California governor told Kasich on Wednesday. "Your vision and inclusiveness is just what our nation needs."
Ohio's governor and Schwarzenegger appeared together in Sacramento at an event hosted by New Way California, a group trying to broaden the base and brighten the image of the Republican Party in the Democratic-dominated state with a more-moderate message of inclusiveness.
Schwarzenegger supported Kasich during his failed 2016 bid for the Republican presidential nomination against President Donald Trump and a host of other contenders. Kasich, a Trump critic who will depart the governor's office in January, is keeping his political options open for 2020.
During his remarks, Kasich said he wants the Republican Party to survive, but warned it must change its ways to care about people rather than ideology.
"It's my job to lead the party and it's my job to pull us into caring for people ... With new ideas, boldness, courage and ideas, this party can come back," he said. "We need to focus on issues and people rather than politics."
But, Kasich again raised the specter of a third party materializing if Democrats and Republicans continue to retreat from the center to the right and left fringes.
He also threw in a jab at Trump: "I think he's a manifestation of where this country is going -- and we have to knock it off."
Schwarzenegger visited the Statehouse earlier this month to literally toast Kasich and legislative leaders for forging a plan to redraw gerrymandered congressional districts headed to voters on the May 8 ballot.
It's unclear who picked up Kasich's tab for his California trip, but a spokesman said it was not on the taxpayers' dime.
(c)2018 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio)
