Understated Kasich says he’ll think about the possible need to ‘juice it up’
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Version 0 of 1. RICHMOND — Republican presidential contender John Kasich vowed Monday to stick with his understated style even if it costs him the nomination — but also said he would think about whether he should “juice it up.” “I’m not playing to the cheap seats,” he said at a town hall-style meeting at the University of Richmond. “If that’s what it takes, I’m not going to be president. I’m not doing it. ... [But] I’ll keep in mind what you’re saying. Maybe there’s a way at times to kind of juice it up and all that stuff.” The Ohio governor made the remark after a young man in the audience suggested that in an angst-ridden election season, Kasich had cast himself as a “happy warrior” — with too much emphasis on the “happy.” “Where is the warrior most of the time?” he asked Kasich. The governor, running as a moderate, has struggled to get traction in a nomination contest that has been dominated by the swashbuckling Donald Trump. Even with support for the billionaire developer and reality television star falling, Trump still ranks first with nearly 23 percent in the latest Real Clear Politics average of the polls. Kasich is seventh, with just over 3 percent. Kasich said that his style on the campaign trail should not be confused with a lack of resolve, pointing to his victories as governor and as a member of Congress before that. He called himself a “troublemaker,” but one with a purpose. He said he so shook up Ohio government that his approval rating sank to the nation’s lowest — before his reforms took hold and he won reelection in a rout. “Don’t have any doubt about the fact that I have the spine and the toughness,” he said. “You don’t balance the federal budget — make everybody in the town angry — you don’t become the most unpopular governor in the country when you’re turning a state around, unless you have the guts to do it. But I also know that tone matters.” [Kasich has a novel pitch to voters: He’s a politician] Kasich, who spent 18 years in Congress then worked for Wall Street’s Lehman Brothers before becoming governor, spent much of the hour-long meeting recounting his victories in state and federal budget-balancing, and defending his moderate stances on health care and immigration. He played up his humble roots and youthful chutzpah. The son of a Pittsburgh-area postman and grandson of a coal miner, Kasich was an Ohio State freshman when he somehow finagled his way into a 20-minute Oval Office audience with President Richard M. Nixon. Kasich also led the crowd in a chorus of “Happy Birthday” after a student said he’d been given the chance to ask the first question because it was his big day. Serenade aside, student government President Angelo Suggs Jr. remained undecided, but said he liked Kasich’s style. “Executive leadership might not always look like the hottest, most wild rhetoric,” said Suggs, who had just turned 22. When a female student asked about immigration, Kasich said the country needs to secure its border just as her dorm’s front door must be kept locked. But he also said that he supported a way for illegal immigrants to gain legal status. “For the ones that are here, if they didn’t violate the law, they’re part of our community, let them stay,” he said. But he said he does not favor making them full citizens over people who have been waiting their turns through legal channels. “You can’t just say, ‘Everything’s okay,’ ” he said. “I don’t favor a path to citizenship. Give them the legalization. That’ll be fine.” Kasich drew hundreds of people to the event, many of them students. Alice Reiniger, a homemaker who lives not far from the suburban campus, came to get a second look at the man she and her husband happened to meet in an elevator in New Hampshire in 1998, when Kasich was mulling an earlier bid for president. “He had a few moments to take a break and we sat together in the lobby for literally 10 minutes and just talked,” she recalled. “He was so approachable, smart and confident, just an ease about him that he could handle whatever came his way.” She came away from the event “very encouraged.” Some of Kasich’s moderate policy stances put him out of step with Republican leaders in Virginia. Under Kasich, Ohio agreed to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, something Virginia’s Republican-led General Assembly has repeatedly rejected. He has defended that decision as both compassionate and financially sound, saying that the health-care program for the poor will keep people from using the emergency room for routine medical care. Just three Republicans in the Virginia Senate have supported a form of Medicaid expansion. One of them, Sen. Emmett Hanger of Augusta, will serve as Virginia co-chairman of Kasich’s campaign in the state, along with Dels. Chris Peace (R-Hanover) and Ron Villanueva (R-Virginia Beach). Former congressman Tom Davis, one of the state’s most prominent moderate Republicans, will serve as honorary state chairman. |