John Kasich: I'm not interested in running for president

By Catalina Camia 48 minutes ago

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Ohio Gov. John Kasich is a former member of Congress. (Tony Dejak, AP)
Flattery apparently isn’t going to work on Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who told a Columbus TV station to count him out of the 2016 presidential race.

“I’m flattered that people are thinking that I should run for president, but I’m not interested,” Kasich told WBNS, the CBS affiliate in the Ohio capital. “I’m sorry — I’m just not interested in it.”

Kasich flirted with a presidential campaign in 2000, when he was House Budget chairman. But the Republican dropped out of the race before the primaries began.

Now, Sen. John McCain is talking up Kasich as one of the GOP governors who could be in the mix in 2016. The timing isn’t lost on Kasich, who is running this year for a second term as governor and is a Democratic target for defeat.

“I tried to run for president back at the end of the 90s and 2000 and no one was interested,” Kasich said in his Columbus TV interview. “And, I really was trying. Now, I’m not interested and everyone puts your name up. So I don’t know what that says about life.”

Democrat Ed FitzGerald, the Cuyahoga County executive, has been trying to get Kasich to sign a pledge saying he will serve a full second term if he wins in November.

http://onpolitics.usatoday.com/2014/...ce-republican/