The closest thing Ohioans got to a televised debate int this year’s race for Ohio governor was a video posted by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The PD recorded their joint editorial board interview with John Kasich, Ed FitzGerald and Green Party Candidate Anita Rios and posted it online.

In the video, we got to see FitzGerald fired-up and on message while Kasich slumped in his chair, refused to acknowledge the other candidates and ignored repeated attempts by PD staff to answer even basic questions about his policies and programs.

If you wondered why Kasich rejected multiple debate offers from FitzGerald this year, this is the video you need to see!

I would provide a link to the video… except the PD took it down. We are going to guess it had something to do with a very nice and polite request from the ever-nice and polite folks in Kasich’s office.

FitzGerald’s campaign took offense at the removal of the video, especially the part where “Kasich refused to answer why he put a gag order on rape crisis counselors.”

As the FitzGerald campaign pointed out in a press release today, “Governor Kasich signed a law that threatens to cut state funding from rape crisis clinics if counselors tell victims impregnated by their rapist that abortion is a legal option.”

But when the Democratic candidate brought this up in the meeting, “the Governor refused to look at FitzGerald, often deliberately and petulantly looking off in the other direction, refusing to answer his opponents’ questions unless a Plain Dealer reporter or editorial board member repeated them.”

Wow… I bet you really wish you could see that video now, don’t you?

Plunderbund powers…. activate!

p.s. The PD still endorsed Kasich.

UPDATE: In response to a letter from the Cleveland Plain Dealer/NEO Media Group threatening to sue us, we have temporarily removed the video.

UPDATE: We created a new video highlighting the important scenes from the interview. You can find it here.