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A moment after John Kasich began speaking at the podium at Great Neck Synagogue, which was a moment after Rabbi Polakoff introduced him and pronounced his name like “Quidditch,” a woman sitting in the back of the room shouted “louder!” The same thing happened to Lindsey Graham, who visited in November. Graham laughed it off and raised his voice as much as he could in his laconic South Carolina drawl. John Kasich looked pissed.

John Kasich or Chuck Schumer?? // https://usatelections.wordpress.com/2015/10/19/john-kasich-fundraising-ohio/

He spoke before kiddush, in the beit knesset. To be honest, I don’t usually go to shacharit, and it’s bad that I went to see Kasich rather than just daven, but that’s that happened.

He looked annoyed the whole time, like a guinea pig for Republican party leaders to find out how to make sure this election never happens again. He didn’t smile. He didn’t joke. Gone was Neo-Jeb. He was all business.

His speech was strange, discursive, and did not pander. When Graham spoke at Great Neck Synagogue, he talked about the Iran deal and his support for Israel. Kasich, as one of my brothers noted, didn’t use the word “Israel” once. Nor did he mention the Iran Deal. This is a gobsmacking omission for someone speaking at a shul in a town with one of the biggest Persian populations in the United States. He did talk about a trip to Jerusalem with a Pastor, but only in touristy terms. He put a lot of emphasis on the word “splendor.”

Kasich, in case you haven’t heard, is the son of a mailman. His mom worked too, but he never says what her job was. His father picked up his mother from work every night, driving on a dangerous highway to do it. His greatest fear is that they wouldn’t come home. One night, that happened. A drunk driver killed his parents. Hid father died immediately, his mother made it for another day. As he left her bedside after she passed, a pastor approached him. Showed him the Lord. John Kasich became a religious man.