Ohio's High Black Infant Mortality Rate - Don't Blame Me Says Kasich

Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) 

On Wednesday night during MSNBC's town hall, host Chuck Todd asked Ohio Governor and presidential candidate John Kasich (R) about his record on minority issues in his state.  He quoted a report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation that ranks Ohio as the sixth worst state for a black child to grown up and where the income gap between Ohio blacks and Ohio whites is reported to be $20,000.  He pointed out that Cleveland is one of the top ten most segregated cities in the country. 

As Winning Democrats reported: 

What followed is arguably one of the most racist remarks this campaign has seen thus far.  Kasich first stated that he didn't think the statistics were true, but then he went into a bizarre, racist rant on infant mortality.  Kasich said that his infant mortality program was having great results with white people, so the issue must (obviously) be because black people aren't good at "partnership," as Kasich suggested when he said: 

"So I don't know about all that study.  I will tell you this.  The issue of infant mortality is a tough one.  We have taken that on and one of the toughest areas to take on is in the minority community. And the community itself is going to have to have a better partnership with all of us to begin to solve that problem with infant mortality in the minority community, because we're making gains in the majority community."... 

...Apparently, because there have been "gains in the majority community," it's black people's fault that results haven't been seen in their communities...  The major causes of infants deaths are "prematurity and congenital anomalies"--all of which have definitely been affected by the fact that Kasich defunded Planned Parenthood and put an end to the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies program, which was the largest infant mortality prevention program in Ohio!  Of course, Kasich mentioned none of that.

what eye thynk:  Kasich is a typical conservative Republican who gets away with calling himself a moderate simply because the other two candidates exist somewhere right of the Ayatollah.  

He doesn't care about women, minorities, the environment, or gay people.  Just as he failed to mention the cancellation of the Healthy Babies program on Wednesday evening, at other campaign stops around the country, Mr. Kasich conveniently fails to mention the nearly 20 anti-abortion bills he has signed into law, or the number of Planned Parenthood clinics he has forced to close.  He doesn't mention that the facilities he told Ohio voters would be able in pick up the void in women's healthcare created by the closing of PP clinics included dermatologists, dental offices, and school nurses. (Do you want to get your pre-natal care at your dentist's office or would you prefer to stop in at your local middle school on a day when the nurse is in?)

Mr. Kasich doesn't bother to mention that Ohio is the only state to reverse the renewable energy program put in place by his predecessor.  He doesn't mention that his administration got caught partnering with the gas and oil industry to sell the benefits of fracking.

He will tell you how he allowed same-sex marriage to begin in Ohio--but fails to mention that was only after the Supreme Court handed down its decision (and after Ohio refused to drop its case against marriage equality even after losing in District Court.)

Minorities in Ohio are mainly centered in large cities--cities like Cleveland where Kasich is highly unpopular.  He doesn't mention that either; and sadly, political pundits like Chuck Todd don't seem to want to look too deeply, perhaps fearing what they'll find. On Wednesday night, Mr. Todd actually went on to praise Gov. Kasich for the work he has done for Ohio's minorities--despite the fact that the only evidence of this "work" was the silence John Kasich uses like a shield to hide his true conservative roots.