John Kasich: 2016's Happiest Warrior

One measure of his tenuous new stature: Right to Rise, the super PAC backing Jeb Bush, just launched a television ad attacking Kasich as "wrong on New Hampshire issues." The harder challenge, if Kasich were to do well here, lies ahead, but that's a headache Kasich would be delighted to suffer. His campaign argues that he is on the ballot in more than 30 states and has an eye on winner-take-all Ohio, which votes March 15.

Kasich is only a moderate, rhetorically and politically, in the acid context of the current Republican Party. As Ohio's governor, he tried to strip public-employee unions of bargaining rights and signed a law banning abortion after 20 weeks -- but also accepted the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare.

Asked in Contoocook about his approach to health care, Kasich spent four minutes discussing methods of paying doctors and hospitals for above-average performance -- without mentioning Obamacare, much less denouncing it. (For the record, as he hastened to say when I noted this to him afterwards, he's against it.)

At a senior citizen center in Concord, a voter lamented the presence of "millions of illegals" in the country, asking, "What is your plan to deport them?"

Kasich didn't try to soften the blow of disagreement. "I wouldn't," he said. "It's never going to happen. ... There is no practical way to go searching neighborhoods, grabbing people out of their homes."

If he fails to produce a strong showing in the primary here Feb. 9, Kasich acknowledged, "I'm pretty well done -- I am done." Still, he said, "We've raised the bar in this election. I've talked about hope and the future and positive things and a can-do attitude. ... So whatever you do, even if you don't love me, I love you. How's that?"

Pretty refreshing actually.

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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.