Columbus Dispatch...
GOP governors go after Obama 
December 4, 2011 

ORLANDO, Fla. — Every presidential cycle, many governors become mouthpieces and attack dogs for their party’s nominee. 

The Republicans have not yet made their choice on a candidate to challenge President Barack Obama, but GOP governors are nonetheless gearing up to play their part. 

On full display this week at the now-completed Republican Governors Association’s annual conference in Orlando was punchy rhetoric from prominent GOP governors against Obama. Voters in Ohio and across the country are sure to hear more such lines from the country’s 29 Republican governors as 2012 approaches. 

Accusations of a failure to lead on debt reduction and on the economy, strangling of private-sector growth, and mandating the purchase of health care rolled off the tongues of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and others — what one might expect from a gathering of the president’s political adversaries. 

But it was Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam who said that his colleagues’ criticisms shouldn’t be dismissed as typical opponent-bashing by the GOP, because Republican governors such as him agree with many facets of Obama’s education policy. 

Haslam suggested that such accord — Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed a budget this year that tied teachers’ performance pay in Ohio to Obama’s Race to the Top education program — justifies their repudiation of the rest of the president’s agenda. 

“When we see the country solving problems, it’s not just Republicans that are always going to throw rocks at Democrats no matter what they do,” Haslam said. “We say, ‘Hey, that’s a great thing, keep going and tell us how we can help.’ And I see that kind of attitude across the board.” 

Jessica Kershaw, the Obama campaign’s Ohio press secretary, said the president “will continue to seek common ground and has shown time and again that he is willing to find bipartisan solutions to issues affecting our country.” She then redirected the discussion to where much of the election battle will be fought — the economy. 

“But the fact is, President Obama is committed to restoring economic security for the middle class and creating a fairer economy while Republicans like Gov. Kasich and Mitt Romney want to cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires, let Wall Street write their own rules and put the economic burden they created on middle class Ohioans,” Kershaw said. 

Kasich spent much of his time at the conference talking about state policy and almost none on presidential politics. But he devoted huge portions of his stump speech as a campaigner in 2010 railing against Obama. His Republican counterparts were eager to take up the slack this week. 

“We have a president who spends too much of his time focused on how more people can get on government unemployment checks versus figuring out how to get more people on private sector paychecks,” Walker said. 

Daniels said Obama’s “policies have failed manifestly.” 

“I really do believe he has huge problems” in his re-election bid, he said. 

“The only thing he can hope for is that Republicans do not offer a constructive and credible alternative,” said Daniels, whose typically Republican state went to Obama in 2008. “His standing is very shaky in our state and I wouldn’t expect him to carry it.” 

There has long been concern over the GOP presidential field, enough for Republicans to urge the likes of Christie and Daniels to join the race (they both declined). Christie, who has endorsed Romney, said once Republicans choose a candidate from the current pack, they will turn their attention toward Obama. 

“Given the president’s performance, the president’s got a lot of explaining to do,” Christie said.

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