Kasich: Why is he still running ?

In politics, “this truly is a year when the rules don’t apply,” said Rich Lowry in Politico .com. If they did, John Kasich would have long ago ended his “delusional vanity project masquerading as a presidential campaign.” In a year of angry voters, the Ohio governor has found little market for his moderate “can’t we all get along” message. Kasich hasn’t won anywhere other than in his home state, finished at below 5 percent in seven states, and trails so far behind front-runner Donald Trump and secondplace Sen. Ted Cruz that he cannot take the nomination even if he wins every remaining delegate. His plan is to force a contested convention, and then somehow persuade the GOP to choose him over Trump and Cruz. At this point, “a vote for Kasich is a vote for Trump,” said Michael Barone in NationalReview.com. Many of the remaining 19 states “select delegates winner-takeall statewide or by congressional district.” With the opposition divided between Kasich and Cruz, Trump has “an excellent chance” of piling up lots of delegates in those contests—thus securing the majority he needs.

Kasich’s rationale for staying in the race is simple, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. In the upcoming primaries in the Northeast, he “has a better chance than Cruz of stealing moderately conservative voters from Trump.” With his doctrinaire, combative conservatism, Cruz is a turnoff to these mainstream Republicans. Plus, Kasich is the only remaining Republican candidate who consistently beats Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in head-to-head poll matchups. If it comes to an open convention, why wouldn’t the GOP nominate the candidate with the best chance of winning in November?

Those arguments “make no sense,” said Jeffrey Anderson in TheFederalist.com. Kasich hasn’t done well in the Northeast, and by diluting the vote, he’s already cost Cruz possible victories in at least three states and could do the same in Wisconsin. Cruz has a much better chance of winning enough delegates to stop Trump’s nomination if he faces him head-to-head. “There’s something very, very wrong” with Kasich’s entire strategy, said Jim Newell in Slate.com. His plan is to become the nominee by finishing “a distant third,” and then having party leaders anoint him. If the will of the primary voters is that irrelevant, “why bother hosting primaries?”