Surprise! Ohio Gov. Kasich quits the Republican race for president

Perhaps Ohio Gov. John Kasich was too busy enjoying his time traveling, eating and losing to realize he didn’t have a prayer to be the Republican presidential nominee.

Well before the primaries and caucuses started, I wrote a column that ran Nov. 20, 2015, declaring Kasich’s likelihood of emerging as the Republican nominee was “somewhere between very, very slim and none.”

I was being polite.

With each defeat, Kasich’s campaign strategy kept changing and failing.

First, it was: do well in New Hampshire – he finished a distant second to bombastic billionaire Donald Trump, the party’s presumptive nominee – and keep the supposed momentum going in Northeast and Midwest states.

But there was no momentum for him or anyone besides Trump.

The original field of 17 kept shrinking with time, polls showing Trump in command, money drying up and eventually numerous Trump victories.

Others saw the writing on the wall, and by the March 8 primary in Michigan, there were only four candidates left.

Michigan should have been a winnable state for Kasich. He was governor of the state just south of there, and he had campaigned quite a few times in Michigan.

Kasich finished third out of four candidates, and somehow touted the outcome as a win. This would become a familiar Kasich campaign theme and new strategy: do poorly but still declare victory.

As Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras put it: “I was not very good in sports, so I would always come in third, fourth or fifth. I realize now thanks to John Kasich that I won. I feel really good about my third place in my fifth-grade kickball tournament.”

A week after Michigan was the Ohio primary.

Kasich barnstormed around his home state leading to the March 15 primary. He captured the winner-take-all, 66-delegate race in Ohio, but again, no momentum.

That same night, Trump cruised to an easy win in Florida, capturing the state’s 99 delegates, and knocked U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida out of the primary race.

Trump also won Illinois, a Midwest state in which Kasich finished third, as well as North Carolina and Missouri on March 15.

The Ohio win allowed Kasich to press on, but all that meant was repeated and embarrassing defeats.

Republican voters have made it crystal clear that they want Trump as their nominee. That’s something that the party’s establishment didn’t accept and tried to stop. Left with the choice between Kasich and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, widely disliked and even hated by his GOP colleagues, the establishment backed the latter, showing how little faith they had in the Ohio governor.

With no path to getting the 1,237 delegates needed to be the nominee, Kasich’s campaign touted a new strategy: stop Trump from getting to the magic number and emerge from a brokered Republican National Convention as the party’s choice for president.

Kasich wanted people to forget he only won his home state and was in fourth place in delegates, trailing even Rubio, who dropped out March 15.

Also, Kasich wanted people to ignore that Trump is well on his way to 1,237 delegates and has been from the start of the primary/caucus season.

Kasich got crushed all over the country. He came in last in the Kentucky caucus. If you check a map, Kentucky is directly south of Ohio.

In Pennsylvania, east of Ohio and Kasich’s birth state, he finished last. He also lost McKees Rocks, Pa., his beloved hometown.

How unelectable was Kasich outside of Ohio? He didn’t even bother to campaign in Indiana, the state on Ohio’s western border.

In a ridiculous deal cut with Cruz that was doomed from the start, Kasich didn’t campaign in Indiana. In exchange, Cruz agreed not to campaign in New Mexico – just west of his home state of Texas – and Oregon.

After Tuesday’s loss in Indiana to Trump (yet again), John Weaver, Kasich’s chief strategist, wrote in an email: “Tonight’s results are not going to alter Gov. Kasich’s campaign plans. Our strategy has been and continues to be one that involves winning the nomination at an open convention.”

Weaver also bragged that the campaign “had already secured a large plurality of Indiana delegates committed to” Kasich.

The biggest difference between Trump and Kasich is one is going to be his party’s presidential nominee and the other is returning to Ohio. Kasich has been an absentee governor who spent at least 200 days outside of his state on a quixotic presidential campaign governing by cellphone.

Despite saying during the 2014 gubernatorial election that he wouldn’t run for president, Kasich did – essentially using that victory over an overmatched and unprepared opponent as his launching point for higher office. Being Ohio governor is his consolation prize.

During his Wednesday announcement that he was leaving the presidential race, Kasich didn’t give a reason why.

It’s obvious, but it’s amazing that it took Kasich this long to figure out there was no path for him to win. I wonder if he realizes there never was one.