Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who casts himself as a compassionate conservative, blasted what he claims is a hate-filled atmosphere in Washington during a town-hall meeting at Dartmouth College Friday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“We can fight without having to hate,” Kasich told the crowd of mostly students. “There’s too much of that really personal stuff right now.”
“We have to have some degree of bipartisan buy-in, and right now, it’s just a mess,” he added.
Kasich, a second-tier Republican presidential hopeful, also weighed in on congressional Republicans’ current struggle to determine who will succeed House Speaker John Boehner.
The former congressman told the college students, “you cannot lead from the legislative branch really with any degree of effectiveness.”
“So what you have is a wandering,” he said. “The [Republican] party appears divided right now, but with a strong president you’ll see it united.”
Kasich holds the No. 7 spot in the latest Washington Examiner presidential power rankings. He currently earns 2 percent among Republican voters nationwide, according to RealClearPolitics’ polling average.
