John Kasich has discovered himself in New Hampshire.
“I have found great clarity in New Hampshire," he says, about ten minutes into a town hall in the state's heavily Democratic capital city. It's a fortuitous development. As luck would have it, Kasich has built his campaign around success in the state's first in the nation primary Tuesday. And Kasich wants to use this town hall to share his newfound wisdom with voters.
At times, he sounds less like a presidential candidate than a national therapist. "I think many of us just feel lonely," he says. "We don't know where to go. There's nobody around to celebrate some of our victories. And sometimes there's nobody around to celebrate—or to just cry with us. Don't we want that back in our country again?"
Kasich shares stories of people who have come to his town halls to share their stories with him. Some of the stories are compelling and dramatic, others are hokey, forced. But he's not done.
"Don't we need to slow down our lives a little bit and listen to somebody else and celebrate with them and mourn with them and struggle with them? Cause, you know, we're all connected. Everybody on this earth is connected. We're just part of a mosaic in a moment of time. And when people are broken, it hurts all of us."