The former Republican senator tells BuzzFeed News about the qualities he seeks in a leader, but declined to endorse a presidential candidate just yet.
Luke Palmisano / AP
George Voinovich, the former two-term Republican senator from Ohio, told BuzzFeed News in an interview on Monday that he believes Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who some in the media have deemed the real frontrunner in the Republican race, lacks the management experience to be president.
"The only reason why I discount him, from my experience, is that he hadn't had any management experience," Voinovich, who also was governor of Ohio for two terms, said. "And I think our president has been a disaster because of the fact that he hasn't had any management experience."
"I was a county auditor, a county commissioner, lieutenant governor, mayor, and governor. And I can tell you that when I became mayor I thanked god that I had been a county commissioner. I'd learned things through that experience. And when I became governor, I said, 'Oh, thank god, I was a mayor, a county commissioner.' There's a big difference between being an executive, an administrator, and being a legislator. And some people can rise above that, but darn few do," he said. (Rubio, it should be noted, was city commissioner for West Miami prior to his election to the Florida statehouse.)
The 79-year-old Republican declined to make an endorsement on Monday, despite a heavy overlap between John Kasich's staff and his own teams from his days in office, including Kasich's campaign manager, Beth Hansen, who was Voinovich's state director for 12 years and ran his first senate campaign.
An endorsement, he said, "might happen" "down the road," but, for now, he's still waiting to see which candidate will have the "courage to look the American people in the eye" and tell them about the need for "short-term pain" "so that our children have the opportunity to have the same standard of living and quality of life that we have had."
Voinovich, who left the Senate in 2011, broke ranks with Republicans a number of times during the Obama administration. He was the sole Republican to vote for raising the debt ceiling in December 2009, and he told BuzzFeed News that he believes the next president must also be willing to compromise to address fiscal problems that threaten the nation.
He added that he thinks that candidates with executive experience in government -- such as John Kasich, Jeb Bush, and, to a lesser extent, Chris Christie -- are best positioned to address the nation's problems.
"You gotta have somebody that understands that you have to have humility and, you know, you gotta look back. And John's had some tough times in the legislature and he's had to sit down and work it out. I know Jeb's had it," Voinovich said.
Despite his lack of experience, Voinovich sees Rubio's appeal as a candidate, saying, "I think on the stump he's more attractive than the three people you just mentioned, the former governors." He praised him for being "a good looking guy," who's "young" and electable, with a compelling personal story.
"I think people in this era feel that perhaps his charisma and so forth would make him someone that would be acceptable to the American people. The son of an immigrant and so on and so forth," he said.
But he argued that voters will ultimately seek a candidate with more experience as an executive, an area where, he noted, even Trump surpasses Rubio.
"I think that when people think about it—they're gonna want to say that 'I'd like to have somebody in there that's had a track record, that's faced a lot of problems, has had to come up with solutions, has had to work with other people to bring them together to solve these problems and quite frankly I don't think he's had that experience," Voinovich said. "Quite frankly, Trump has had much more experience in that regard than he has ever had in terms of putting deals together and working with other people."
Voinovich has never been shy about criticizing members of his party. He made news when, in a book published after his retirement from public service, he condemned Mitch McConnell for telling Republicans that, if Obama "was for it, we had to be against it."
Voinovich also told BuzzFeed News that he would "have a problem" with Ted Cruz, should he be the nominee. He added, however, that, like Rubio, Cruz has "a lot of good characteristics about him." He said he likes what Rubio in particular has said on foreign policy, though again cautioned that "the fact that I'm an expert in policy does not necessarily mean that I'm gonna make a great president."
If there is a model Voinovich is using as a point of comparison, it's George H.W. Bush, whom he called the "ideal" character to hold the nation's highest office.
"He's the greatest that I've met in my career in terms of character and, you know, he's just quite a guy," he said.
Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/1iegFg1
0 comments:
Post a Comment