KASICH ON MEET THE PRESS SUNDAY
Ohio Gov. John Kasich is making a special appearance on Meet the Press today at 9 a.m. on NBC. We will have live updates throughout his appearance on Twitter at @Ohio_Politics. Also, get the latest news on Kasich and his possible presidential run on our new Ohio Politics Facebook page.
and Darrel Rowland
Columbus Dispatch
NASHUA, N.H. — As one of the last of 19 potential presidential candidates speaking during a two-day political marathon that ended Saturday, Ohio Gov. John Kasich concluded with one plea:
“Think about me, would you? Don’t commit too soon,” he told several hundred Republican activists in the state that holds America’s first presidential primary.
While Kasich’s half-hour of fame didn’t draw the enthusiastic response to several other speakers, he and his aides were approached by a number of people afterward who wanted to host the governor on future visits. As a key political week for Kasich drew to a close — Monday at the Detroit Economic Club and the past two days in the early voting states of South Carolina and New Hampshire — it sounds as if Kasich’s dalliance with a presidential campaign will continue.
“At the end of the day, if I feel this is my call, I will come back again and again and again,” he told the New Hampshire audience. “In the meantime, I’m not going to change my message.”
After the speech, Doug McGinley of Bedford, N.H., said, “I think he could make a good president. Whether he would make a good presidential candidate, I don’t know.”
He wondered how well Kasich would connect with voters. “But I think he’s very capable and if he decides to run he’s somebody I’d look at seriously.”
With the Granite State’s primary less than 10 months away, some party leaders will start making decisions on who to support after the two days of vetting, said Ray F. Chadwick, a member of the state GOP executive committee.
“In New Hampshire we feel obliged to actually vet these people,” he said. “People will sign up for various camps…others are still kicking the tires and seeing what’s going to happen.
While Kasich has a “good record of accomplishment” in Ohio, Chadwick said, “There are three other governors that all have kind of similar achievements.”
Bruce Berke, a New Hampshire lobbyist who is informally guiding Kasich in the state, said people responded to Kasich’s “truly authentic” message.
“This is just an opportunity to connect and to let them know who you are so that when you come back you have that first step taken care of,” Berke said.
Kasich had lunch and private meetings with potential supporters, as well as an interview in the back seat of his black SUV with Bloomberg News’ Mark Halperin, who wrote a book about the 2012 presidential race using embargoed material he gained along the campaign trail.
Halperin rated Kasich a B among the GOP speakers. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio got the highest grade, an A-.
Joe Scarborough, former GOP congressman who co-anchors the Morning Joe show on MSNBC, called Kasich a “special guy to me” because he influenced him to run for Congress.
“If he decides to jump in and run an aggressive campaign, he’ll do well,” Scarborough said.
While Kasich’s reception in New Hampshire was mostly positive, he got some pushback earlier in the day in Greenville, S.C., in the most conservative corner of a conservative state.
He is, after all, a Republican governor who chose to expand Medicaid, made possible by Obamacare. He doesn’t buy all the criticism of Common Core. And he’s less likely to take a rhetorical swing at President Barack Obama than most of his potential GOP presidential counterparts.
So it wasn’t too surprising that those attending the Greenville County Republican Convention returned to their cars only to find a half-page yellow flier tucked under their windshield wipers echoing some of the same complaints Ohio tea party members have tossed at Kasich.
“Why is Governor John Kasich Pushing Obama’s Agenda?” the flier read.
“I was kind of delighted to see it,” said Kasich, who insists that he doesn’t “come to these places to just serve red meat,” but rather, to offer solutions.
But Republicans who greeted him warmly the night before were just a tiny bit cooler Saturday.
That was, in part, because of the venue. The convention was a large gathering, and Kasich had no opportunity to field questions from the crowd. But some admitted that he might have opinions that were a bit too moderate for their taste.
James Lee, a Reynoldsburg native who now lives in Greenville, acknowledged that it might be “difficult for him amongst conservatives,” and that both the Medicaid expansion and Kasich’s embrace of “the old notion of the compassionate conservative” will likely hurt him. The latter, Lee said, has become “a shortcut for someone who’s a moderate who wants to see more government and that sort of thing.”
“People are listening for that 30-second sound bite, and if first few things they hear are, ‘I’m going to grow the government and take the Medicaid funds,’ that’s almost a non-starter,” Lee said.
But Matt Moore, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, said at this point, the primary is “wide open.”
“I’m not sure most people here are familiar with the specifics of his record,” he said. “I think people are mostly interested in looking a candidate in the eye, looking at his heart, are they genuine. Certainly I think anyone who meets Gov. Kasich thinks he’s genuine. His message is not the same as other candidates. It’s a little bit different stylistically and in tone, and maybe that helps him here.”
Kasich, who will appear today on NBC’s “Meet the Press” before multiple events in Washington later in the week, was the only possible candidate to make both the New Hampshire and South Carolina events.
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