A play on the title of Trump's first book "The Art of the Deal". (Which is a pretty good book.)
Kasich is still my guy.
Anyway this is Henninger's column. Worth reading the whole thing if you can get past the Wall Street journal pay wall.
In the debates, which have required the world’s troubles to be compressed into 60-second word torrents, Mr. Kasich keeps saying, “Folks, I’ve done it,” and “I know how to do this.”
It’s true.
John Kasich first showed up on The Wall Street Journal’s editorial radar during the Clinton presidency in the 1990s, when he became House budget committee chairman.
Reading through the editorials we published then about the Republicans and Mr. Kasich, one discovers—if it is still permissible to use this word about anyone associated with Washington—a reformer.
The big issue then was the very one at the top of the exit polls now: federal spending.
In 1995, we editorialized: “Rep. Kasich’s budget plan insists on cutting taxes at the same time that spending is contained. Most prominently, cutting capital gains taxes would unlock frozen assets and spur economic growth. It’d also give the issue of economic growth some needed elevation among Republicans.”
When publisher Steve Forbes campaigned for president in Iowa in 1996, he was denounced for his opposition to ethanol subsidies. Rep. Kasich supported Steve Forbes and called for more cuts in business subsidies.
In “What’s a Majority For?” the Journal wrote in 1998 that the GOP Congress had “lost its way.” But an internal party revolt emerged in the House: A group of conservatives pushed “for an urgent change in strategy, lest they lose their majority in November. This is not merely the usual crowd of admirable rebel sophomores. The new thrust is led by Budget Chairman John Kasich.”
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Out of his Washington and Ohio experience, Mr. Kasich has been trying to fashion a case for the political art of the deal, which he believes is distinct from Ted Cruz’s Senate career of dealing with no one and Mr. Trump’s real-estate deals.
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