Governor John Kasich of Ohio has been getting a lot attention recently from the newspapers of New Hampshire; six of the seven dailies in New Hampshire are endorsing the governor for the GOP nomination. The Boston Globe also has thrown its pages in Kasich’s direction and yesterday, The New York Times joined that band of supporters. Does it matter? Do papers carry the same sway they used to, if they ever did? One thing in the gov’s favor is that newspapers don’t have to respond instantly to every new utterance from a candidate to make a comment or an endorsement. Papers have the luxury of thinking about what they say before they say it. Editorial boards sit around and have discussions about the merits of the various candidates before announcing their support for a particular candidate. Kasich has had the good fortune of coming out on top of those discussions. The voters don’t get their news from the papers as they once did and TV and radio stations aren’t known for endorsing candidates in primaries, not that they don’t tilt the news in one direction or another. When voters actually take the time to do some reflective thinking like newspaper editors, will they bend toward Kasich? We will soon see.

The governor was in Peterborough last evening to address local citizens. A reflective thinker couldn’t come away from that meeting without considering John Kasich to be a very plausible candidate. Very much a Republican, he is also a problem solver. Contrasting him against the other GOP candidates he is the only one that I have heard discuss how everyone in DC will have to work together in order to solve some of the massive problems facing the nation. Kasich has a very successful record in Ohio…will the GOP primary voters listen? Do they want solutions? Do they care? I don’t think the Democratic National Committee wants to see a Kasich/Clinton or Kasich/Sanders campaign. If I were a Republican, I would vote Kasich next week.