John Kasich gives his State of the State in Wilmington

Ohio Gov. John Kasich delivers his State of the State address at the Roberts Centre, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015, in Wilmington, Ohio.

(Skip Peterson, The Associated Press)

WILMINGTON, Ohio -- Let's dispense with this up front. Gov. John Kasich is considering a run for president in 2016 -- and as much of a long shot as he is at this early stage, it's never hard to hear the national aspirations in his speeches.

Be that as it may, while delivering his State of the State address here Tuesday evening, Kasich sounded very much like a guy who wants to do more as governor.

"I'm optimistic about what we can achieve," Kasich said as he closed his remarks. "And I'm going to be here working with you, shoulder to shoulder. I'm here to serve."

Kasich has turned this annual event into a spectacle -- a road show that removes him from the Statehouse bubble and puts him out there as a folksy man of the people. But Kasich, more so than in recent years, kept his sales pitch tight and laser-focused on the audience for which a State of State is traditionally intended: the General Assembly.

He badly wants his fellow Republicans, who have firm majorities in the House and Senate, to accept his budget proposal. Kasich hopes lawmakers will choke down higher sales taxes, higher cigarette taxes and higher taxes on Big Oil in exchange for lower income taxes, which the governor believes will spur job growth.

And, of course, there's some political calculus at work. A big budget victory, hammered out pragmatically and anchored by a big income-tax cut, could help Kasich stand out in a field of GOP governors and former governors who are angling for the White House.

Here are a few instant observations on the politics of Kasich's speech.

He's hoping to re-establish himself as a fiscal conservative.

"I believe the most important thing we can do to plan ahead and strengthen Ohio's economy is to further cut taxes, and that means we must restrain spending," said Kasich, who devoted more time to tax policy than any other subject.

Kasich also admonished lawmakers against "punishing" success and risk-taking -- a line that would have been right at home in Mitt Romney's failed 2012 bid for president.

So what happened to the compassionate conservative?

Kasich's two previous State of the State speeches were built around his push to expand Medicaid coverage and to rebrand himself as a compassionate conservative. He is confident that he won that first battle and won't have to fight it again. Absent from this year's remarks was the emphasis on "people in the shadows."

Yes, Kasich talked of helping the mentally ill, the drug-addicted and the poor, but this came toward the end of a nearly 80-minute address. It's not that Kasich believes in these values any less, but with 2016 on his mind, perhaps he's looking for a different beat.

Remember: Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and Republican establishment frontrunner of the moment, is hogging the compassionate conservative lane right now. He's talking a lot about the middle-class and poverty and helping urban centers.

Kasich faces a tough sell with conservative legislators.

The governor pressed a rather pedantic case for consumption taxes -- i.e. sales, cigarette and oil-and-gas severance taxes. Translated, those taxes are more acceptable to Kasich because consumers can limit their exposure to them based on their choices.

He aimed to score populist points.

One reason why Kasich and his allies think he may be an attractive presidential contender is that he has the ability to appeal to a broad spectrum of voters. He often comes off as moderate -- if not liberal -- for a Republican. And Kasich likes to remind people these days that he won all but two counties in his re-election bid last year.

So while Kasich presented himself as a classic fiscal conservative in one breath, he continued his push for higher taxes on oil-and-gas companies in the next. And he had a blunt message for those who argue it will harm the fracking industry.

"That's a joke," Kasich said. "That's a big fat joke."

Of note: Senate President Keith Faber and House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, Republicans both, appeared to clap little -- if at all -- during this section.

The governor also saluted Nina Turner, last year's Democratic candidate for secretary of state and a member of Kasich's task force on community policing.

"Thanks," responded Turner, a former state senator from Cleveland, in a post on Twitter. "I don't agree with the Governor on the budget, but we agree on the Task Force."

Democrats outside Ohio were watching, too.

Kasich's speech always draws quick rebuttals -- and sometimes prebuttals -- from in-state adversaries such as the Ohio Democratic Party. This year's speech generated interest outside Ohio, given that Kasich is boosting his national profile with trips to places like South Carolina and mulling a White House run.

Hours before Kasich took the stage here, the Democratic National Committee blasted the governor for subscribing to "trickle-down economic policies" that favor the rich.

"The Kasich experiment is not working in Ohio," the national party countered in an email, "and it's certainly not working for its middle class families."