John Kasich Isn't Scared

John Kasich is setting himself up to be the thinking man's candidate for the Republican nomination. Everyone else in the race seems to think the country is facing dire threats from every direction, but Kasich said this in his announcement speech:

We pick up the paper, it's Chattanooga, it's Fort Hood, it's ISIS. Are we safe? Are we going to be safe to go to the mall or safe to leave our homes?

These are the worries that many Americans have, but I have to tell you as serious as these are—and they are very serious—we've had a lot worse, much worse in this country. Think about it. The Civil War, do you remember reading about it? It's not just neighbors fighting against neighbors, but it was even family members—kin fighting against one another and killing one another on a battlefield right in America.

How about the about the racial violence that we experienced in this country? The early days of television when they put the dogs and the gas and the batons on people of another color.

Or the world wars? Where many in our families never came home, leaving widows and children without a dad.

Or the depression? The depression. Ask your grandfather, ask your mom and dad about that depression. My father used to say that he'd go down to the store and get some food for the family and the guy would say, "We'll put it on your bill." There was no bill. That's what it took for America to get through the depression.

And you all remember that crystal clear morning and the horror we felt on 9/11. But guess what? We've always gotten through it because the testing is what makes you stronger. It's the challenges that make you better. I have lived through them and I have become stronger for them and America has become stronger for them and here is how we've done it—by staying together. Not by dividing each other, but by staying together with our eyes on the horizon, with our eyes on the horizon about the future.

Of course, we all know what happens to calm, thoughtful candidates for the Republican nomination.

Justin Logan of the Cato Institute was puzzled; why would Kasich say such things, given that they won't appeal to any definable element of the party?

I can't explain what Kasich was up to here. Maybe he's already harbored these views. Maybe he thinks in a field this size he needs to differentiate himself. Maybe his speechwriter got a little frisky and Kasich wasn't really paying attention because he knows he can't win.

As if telling the truth were something that needed justification.