Governor Kasich in Strongsville to Rally for Romney

Gov. John Kasich was in Strongsville Sunday to rally a group of young Republicans before they hit the streets for Mitt Romney and local GOP candidates.

The group, which included a couple busloads of volunteers from New Jersey and Washington D.C., met at BW3 for lunch and a rally, then went out to campaign for Romney, State Sen. Tom Patton and State Rep. Mike Dovilla.

"When I walk out the door, the winds from Washington blow me back inside," Kasich told the crowd of about 200 volunteers and local Republican Party officials. 

But he said he was nonetheless touring the state for the Romney "because I think it matters -- for my children, for tomorrow, for the state of Ohio."

Mayor Tom Perciak said Kasich has created 123,000 jobs in Ohio "and helped this local mayor create 3,000." Patton talked about jobs, too, saying Ohio went from being 48th in the nation in job creation to No. 4.

Kasich also touched on the major campaign issues, like the national debt.

"That debt is really big time," he told the young volunteers. "That debt hangs over us like the sword of Damocles."

He talked about politics as a career choice, and said his own experience -- being in and out of office -- is best: When you're out, he said, you can "see what the real world is like" because when you're in, you're "in a bubble."

The best politicians are those who aren't climbing the career ladder.

"You've got to find somebody who isn't worried about their own hide," he said, noting that he's asked by media all the time why his own popularity is rising. "The reason is, I don't care about it."

Afterward, Kasich said the team picked Strongsville for a door-to-door campaign because "Strongsville's kind of the heart of it all. As goes Strongsville, so goes Ohio."