Republican presidential hopeful John Kasich on Wednesday questioned whether primary rival Jeb Bush should stay in the race if he has to resort to negative attack ads.
{mosads}After Bush aides circulated a memo in South Carolina saying Kasich would gut the military, Kasich called the tactic “sad.”
“I think it’s a sad situation when you’ve got to rely on negative to move voters, which they haven’t been able to do, as opposed to articulating a positive vision,” Kasich said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Why don’t they do that?”
“Why doesn’t somebody ask them, ‘Well, what are you for?’ And if what you’re for isn’t selling, you gotta ask yourself why you’re running,” the Ohio governor added. “At least, if that were the case for me, that’s what I’d be asking.”
Kasich, who had a strong second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary, also hit Bush for his exorbitant but ineffective campaign spending.
“Well, look, you’ve got the Bush campaign, I think they’ve spent about $120 million, and they’ve got like four delegates,” he said. “I mean, they got blown out in Iowa and did poorly in New Hampshire. They are spending all their money going negative.”