Kasich: Trump Is "The Prince Of Darkness," I Am "The Prince Of Light And Hope"

HUGH HEWITT: I’m joined now by Ohio’s governor, John Kasich who is the headline of the day, as a new ARG poll in New Hampshire, shows him rocketing into second place behind Donald Trump closing the gap quickly. John Kasich, welcome to the Hugh Hewitt Show, great to have you back, Governor.

JOHN KASICH: Thank you, always good to be with you, Hugh.

HUGH HEWITT: Now I said after the last debate that you stayed very disciplined and presented a “I got the experience, been there, done that” message. Is that what is working in New Hampshire?

JK: Well, I think it’s some things . I think first of all, I have the experience and I’ve had success and I’ve been a reformer all lot my life. You can’t come from the [inaudible] rocks as you know Hugh, and not be a reformer, and I have a message – look, we have a lot of candidates who like the “Prince of Darkness,” I consider myself the “Prince of Light and Hope” and I don’t spend all my time getting people riled up about how b ad everything is. I acknowledge the challenges, but then I said, come together, the Americans first, we can solve these problems. The people are hungry for that. People don’t want to have to live in the lane of depression. They want to believe that in America it would be fixed and all work, and I think it’s working. Look, I’ve been doing this for a long, long time. People weren’t paying attention and we’re rising right now. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but what I’m happy about is that we’re raising the bar, we have a positive message and many people come and say, “You represent hope.” What can be better than that?

HH: Not much. Now Governor, my brother John still lives in Warren and he said to be the other day that he was surprised that you were not doing better and I said, “Will, just wait. I think a lot of Republican voters are voting strategically. They want all the information and that it’s going to stay fluid up until the day people vote. Do you agree with that assessment that the numbers that we currently have are indicative of very little even though it’s two weeks to Iowa?

JK: Well, I haven’t spent as much time in Iowa because it’s a very big state with four or five media markets and I got in July and there’s one of me to go around which my wife is thrilled about. Though when it comes to New Hampshire, it’s the reason we’re here is that it’s 1.2 million people and I tell you what, it’s like running for mayor or running for Congress and so I’ve done more town halls than anybody running for president in any of the states and people get the measure of you. I’m from Columbus, Ohio, we don’t national press people to come to Ohio unless there is a disaster.