Gov. Kasich embraces role as head of Ohio delegation

TAMPA, Florida - As speeches go, Governor John Kasich's address will be relatively easy to write because he says he'll simply be telling Ohio's story.

Unemployment at 7.2 percent, more than a full point below the national average with Ohio the number one job creator in the Midwest and number four in the nation.

"I'm just going to tell the story and hopefully it will come out right but you know you just don't know," said Kasich who spoke at two other conventions in San Diego in '96 and Philadelphia in 2000.

"I didn't do very well honestly. They had me on teleprompter and I felt like I was like chained to this teleprompter it just didn't go well. When they asked me to speak this time I was like great I got to do this again."

"I'm going to do the best I can and I'll talk about what we're doing in Ohio," he said.

Kasich's greatest convention thrill though had nothing to do with his speeches  but came during the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri when he was just 24 working for Ronald Reagan who was challenging President Gerald Ford for the nomination.

"I went out there in charge of parking, I left in charge of five states," joked Kasich on the front row seat he landed for one of the last true convention battles.

"I was very young and lightning struck and I found myself really in the command center for Ronald Reagan," Kasich recalled.

"I look back on that it was really crazy I mean here I am I'm riding in a car with Ronald Reagan and telling him who he was going to talk to and what I thought he should say with Ronald Reagan, I mean it was the craziest thing in the world." 

"I was 24 years old and then when I finally made it back to Columbus my head had gotten so big that my friends stopped talking to me until I calmed down," Kasich joked of the experience.