Showing why he’s the second out of three GOP candidates who apparently got confused while registering and should have registered as a Democrat, Governor John Kasich played up his moderate-to-left side for a town hall crowd in California, yesterday.

In an exchange with a gay San Francisco resident, who asked for a response to a statement that “gay people are human beings and not a lifestyle choice,” Kasich proceeded to bumble through an answer and threw the entire GOP under the bus, in the process.

“In terms of me, I don’t believe in discrimination,” Kasich said. “I think there is a balance, however, between discrimination and people’s religious liberties. But I think we should just try to, like, take a chill pill, relax, and try to get along with one another a little bit better instead of trying to write some law to solve a problem that doesn’t frankly exist in big enough numbers to justify more lawmaking.”

Like, brilliant. For sure.

Who knew an Ohio governor could morph into a California surfer dude?

When pressed on the Republican stance on marriage, Kasich expanded:

“Well, no, they don’t tell me what to do about the platform. The Republican Party is my vehicle, not my master,” Kasich replied. “I have a right to define the Republican Party, too.”

Kasich added: “I believe in traditional marriage, (but) I just went to a gay wedding,” Kasich responded. “My wife and I went to the wedding. It was great, it was fine.”

That is the problem with 2/3 of the candidates in the running for the GOP nomination right now. They’re trying to “define” the party by their standards, rather than hold to the stated platform.

Kasich further engaged the speaker, in regards to whether people are “born gay” or not.

“Do I think that people are, you know, born gay? Probably,” Kasich said. “I’ve never studied the issue. But I don’t see any reason to hurt you or to discriminate you or make you feel bad or make you feel like a second-class citizen. I don’t think that’s right.”

“So let’s just, like, respect one another a little bit more, tolerate each other’s individual beliefs,” he said. “And I’m not gonna sign any laws in Ohio that is going to create a discrimination against anybody.”

Nice grasp of the English language, Governor. When you pander to the left, you really go all out.