What is
your
first political memory?
KASICH:
My
first political memory was when Michael Amos Manno (sp?), a
conservative
Democratic judge…a supreme court judge in Pennsylvania, went up to eat
dinner at my best buddy's house because it was his uncle. And that's
the
first time I knew that's what politics was, really… It was probably
when
I was about 12 years old.
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Was there somebody who was
particularly
helpful or influential in getting you started in politics?
KASICH:
Well
my mother had a lot of opinions on things and she was kind of
politically
active and just aware and that probably got me more interested in it
than
anything else. And, some of my teachers in school.
My
first involvement
in politics in a formal basis was when I visited the president of the
United
States in the White House when I was 18. [Kasich, then a freshman at
OSU,
wrote a favorable letter to President Nixon. Nixon invited him to
visit,
and Kasich met the president in the Oval Office in December 1970].
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What do you remember about
your first
campaign for public office?
KASICH:
All
the people. The people provided the energy.
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What has been your most
satisfying
accomplishment as an elected official?
KASICH:
I've
had so many, I can't say that one ranks…getting the budget passed,
getting
the budget agreement through, being elected to Congress the first time
in 1982, being elected to the state senate the first time, being with
Ronald
Reagan in 1976 in the Alameda Hotel right after he lost the primary.
There've
been so many where I've been able to just be amazed.
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What has been your greatest
disappointment
as an elected official?
KASICH:
I'm
not anybody that really kind of remembers the disappointments. I don't
have anything I regret in my career.
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Describe a defining moment in
your
life.
KASICH:
The
defining moments in my life really happened right after my parents were
killed by a drunk driver. It forced me to search…to figure out what I
was
all about, what is really important in life…
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Do you have a framework, a
formula,
or a set of criteria for thinking about the proper role of the federal
government?
KASICH:
Yeah,
a lot of it though is common sense. I'm just basically a believer that
people are very capable and very smart and they ought to have a chance
to get the job done.
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Are there any aspects of the
process
by which we elect our president that you think should be changed?
KASICH:
I
like the way it works right now with Iowa and New Hampshire being first
and second because they're states where I can come in here and be able
to get to meet people and be successful. As opposed to a state where
you've
got to spend millions of do llars for people to get to know you. So I
think
the system works fine, and I'll let you know when it's over.
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Americans seem disengaged from
national
politics. Is this a problem in your view, and are there any steps we
can
take to get people more involved?
KASICH:
That's
because their lives are pretty good. They're disengaged from politics
because
they don't really see a reason to be involved and the minute they do
they'll
be engaged. They get involved when they think its important for them to
be involved. I don't think we have to worry about that. I mean I'd like
to see more young people vote, but people have been talking about this
for a hundred years. The system works.
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What is the greatest challenge
facing
the country today?
KASICH:
Getting
people to believe that they can make a huge difference in the way the
country
works and restoring a basic sense of virtues and values.
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A lot of people are thinking
about
running for the White House. What do you offer that sets you apart?
KASICH:
I offer
a vision of what I think the government ought to look like. I think we
ought to run the country from the bottom up rather than the top down. I
would be one that would work aggressively to try to restore our sense
of
virtue, and finally I wo uld do everything I could to convince people
that
they can do anything they want to do it they set their minds to it.
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What do you do for fun?
Rock
and roll,
lifting weights, playing golf and kissing my wife.
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Copyright
1998 Eric
M. Appleman/Democracy in Action |