Unstoppable???

Kasich: Trump’s ‘not unstoppable’

By Nolan D. McCaskill

John Kasich has a message for Donald Trump: You’re not unstoppable.

The Ohio governor finished eighth in the Iowa caucuses with less than 2 percent support but is tied for second place with Ted Cruz in New Hampshire at 11.5 percent, according to a RealClearPolitics average of state polls. But Trump has a massive 20-plus point lead over both in New Hampshire, where the first-in-the-nation primary will take place next Tuesday.

“If I thought he was unstoppable I’d go back to Ohio — tomorrow,” Kasich said Tuesday on CNN’s “New Day.” “He’s not unstoppable. It’s a long way to the finish line.”

Kasich, comparing himself to Trump, cast himself as an unknown candidate but predicted that will change once the field winnows. “The smaller the field is, the more people will be able to hear people like me. Look, nobody in the country knows who I am. They just don’t. They know who I am in New Hampshire, but I’m not a celebrity candidate. I didn’t have a national television show.

“I don’t live in Washington. I’m the governor of Ohio. You know, so nobody knows me, but we do well here. That whole business of being known is going to change.”

Asked how that would change, Kasich responded: “Because you’re all going to be talking about me, and then people are going to say: ‘Who is this guy? How do you pronounce his name? Is it Kay-sich?’”

Kasich, who emphasized that his surname rhymes with basic, said he will continue to share his message with the people of New Hampshire, touting the 89 town halls he’s been to and noting that he plans to hit 100 to give people a chance to ask questions and know him. “Look, it’s real simple: I’m operating on the sunny side of the street,” Kasich said. “What I tell people is yeah, I’ve been a reformer. I’ve been involved in more fights than you can imagine but with great accomplishments — whether it’s jobs, whether it’s welfare reform, fixing my own state — so I just tell them that these problems we have, they can be fixed, and people seem to be very positive and hopeful when they leave.”

Kasich will know whether New Hampshire was a success on the morning of Feb. 10. “And it’s really going to be whether you’re saying, ‘Oh my goodness, this guy Kasich, you know, we sort of counted him out,’” he explained. “Look, the campaigns are spending $4 million of negative ads against me. You think they’re worried? They don’t spend $4 million ahead of somebody at the bottom. And then all of a sudden you folks will be forced to shift a little bit of your attention away from the Trumper, and you might have to talk about John Kasich.”