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Kasich's New Ad Is An Insult to Ohio's Real Blue Collar Workers

By The Pullins Group LLC

So John Kasich must have really wanted me to see his new political commercial because his campaign sent it to me four times.  But that silliness aside, the ad does attempt to set a new tone.  Someone must have fed Kasich enough Xanax, switched him to decaf or something, but he looks and sounds much better.  Gone is the bouncy 25 year old college kid running for State Senate, now here's John Kasich, the grownup running for Governor.

I'll give them a B+ for tone and style.  The ad certainly does look much better. 

But here's the glaring problem, the substance sucks....

First of all, and the more times I watch it, the angrier I get, WORKING FOR THE POST OFFICE IS NOT A BLUE COLLAR JOB JOHN!!!

Working for the post office has always been a government job.  Your dad had that job for life because it was a government job, it wasn't blue collar.  It wasn't anything close to being blue collar. 

Blue collar means that you worked in a factory, or a plant, or out in the weather with machinery.  I know this because I am the proud son of an actual blue collar worker from that same era.

I grew up in Meigs County on the Ohio river and my dad was lucky to work for the primary industry in that area.  He started off working for American Electric Power as a security guard at the coal mines.  Because of his persistence, he was able to convince someone to give him a shot at working at the Gavin Power Plant in Cheshire.

My dad didn't just work during the day like John Kasich's dad did at the post office, he worked shift work.  Day shift was 8 am to 4 pm, Evening shift was 4 pm to 12 midnight, and Midnight shift was 12 midnight to 8 am.  You would switch every two weeks.  Many times you worked overtime or double shifts.  You went in early and worked late.

My dad didn't get every holiday off known to man like John Kasich's dad did either.  You don't shut a power plant down because today is Kwanzaa do you?  Or Sunday?

In fact, my dad always tried to work every holiday because they paid double or triple your normal hourly rate or more.  I remember many a year that my sister, my mom and my dad and I would get up at 2:30 or so in the morning to celebrate Christmas because my dad had to go to work in a few hours.  It sounds like a strange thing to do but I quickly learned that my dad could earn enough money by working on Christmas day to pay for all of our Christmas presents.  I'm proud of him for that and the good life he gave us.  More than I can ever articulate effectively here.

But even more than that I'm angry that John Kasich would insult my late father and my friend's mothers and fathers who worked in real, honest to goodness blue collar jobs.  Not too many layoffs down at the Post Office were there John?  How about strikes, or shutdowns, or competition from overseas, or bankruptcy, or the elimination of company pensions,  or EPA regulations?  What about industrial accidents, mine cave ins, fallen high voltage lines, and cancer from chemical exposure? 

Second, the ad doesn't offer a single possible solution.  Give Ohioans some credit John, we know what the problem is.  The good paying jobs that used to be here in auto plants, and power plants, and mines, and steel factories, and so on are gone and may not ever come back. 

John, do me a favor.  Before you run your next ad read this article from Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel on how to create jobs again in America.  Link is here.

Come up with a plan first and go sell it to voters.  And if you don't believe me, just go look at your own website comments.

Watch the ad and let me know what you think.  Thank you.

Full post as published by The Pullins Report on August 09, 2010 (boomark / email).