Kasich on Hillary in Ohio: 'Of course, she could win'

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who’s exploring a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, says he believes Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton could carry his home state.

“Of course, she could win,” Kasich said in an interview aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”


“Anybody that underestimates Hillary Clinton,” he said, “makes a mistake.”

Kasich also addressed concerns about whether he would give Wall Street any preferential treatment based on his tenure at the investment bank Lehman Brothers before it failed at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.

While Kasich didn’t have a role in the toxic mortgage products that brought down the bank and dragged the U.S. economy into a recession, questions have been raised about whether he tried to talk Ohio state pension funds into investing in the firm.

“I’ve said all along that I think there’s too much greed on Wall Street,” he said. But he quickly added, “There’s nothing wrong with making money. There’s a lot of good.”

Kasich said he was still exploring whether he has the resources and the ability to win sshould he seek the White House, but he said that any candidate that takes extreme or divisive position on the campaign trail isn’t going to do very well.

Both he and Sen. John McCain, who appeared earlier on CNN, said they were not interested in sharing the 2016 Republican ticket as a vice presidential nominee.

“I can be far more effective in the Senate and the Armed Services Committee,” McCain said.

McCain also responded to a ribbing from President Barack Obama at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington Saturday night, who suggested his former 2008 rival could be useful for the troubled Secret Service in keeping intruders off the White House lawn.

The Arizona senator said he was “reporting for duty on Monday morning,” and would help in “getting the Secret Service squared away.”