Mike Barnicle hit the road to get an on-the-ground view of the 2016 race in South Carolina. He writes, "Listening to some of the Republican candidates for president is like eavesdropping on men trying to earn their letter sweater with worthless phrases: carpet bombing, crushing ISIS, as if words alone will accomplish the mission and the lives of those sent into the fight are merely an anonymous squadron of props used to advance a political agenda."
But one candidate resisted to instill fear tactics in his campaign.
Here's what Barnicle says about Governor John Kasich in The Daily Beast:
Kasich is an interesting candidate. He knew his chances in a state dominated by evangelicals and anger were not great but he arrived with a smile on his face and a sound of contentment in his voice because it was not in him to feed the beast of those filled with rage and despairing of the future.
He stood on a stage with a huge American flag hanging behind him. He told the people he’d been at a Town Hall rally earlier in the day and could sense the worry that many have about the direction of the country and the frustration and failure of politics in Washington...
After he spoke, he was walking through the bowels of the boat on his way to another stop on the long trail and he was talking about those who served the country and those who will serve. He spoke about the families in Ohio who have lost a child, a husband, a brother in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I meet with them one on one,” Kasich was saying. “And I cry with them. I’m not embarrassed to tell you I cry. I just wish we’d pay more attention to what war costs and I wish more of us would talk about what it means to be Commander-in-Chief. That phrase is more than words. It’s the ultimate responsibility of a president. We’re cheating people by not talking enough about that role. Shame on us and shame on this process we have of electing a president the way we’re doing it now. We’re better than this and people deserve more than what they’re getting from us. From all of us.”
Read the entire article here.