‘He’s delusional’: Why is this guy still running for president?

IGNORED by the media, and by voters, John Kasich will not take the hint. The rank outsider seriously believes he’s the guy who’ll beat Donald Trump.

HE’S been ignored by the media and by most voters, but John Kasich just can’t take the hint.

The Governor of Ohio has been running for president since July of last year, though you’d be forgiven for failing to notice. He’s the self-anointed nice guy of the Republican race — the one who stubbornly refuses to attack his rivals under any circumstances.

It’s a curious strategy. Donald Trump’s taunts and insults have propelled him to a runaway lead, while Kasich’s good manners have brought him nothing but failure. His best performance of the campaign so far was a distant second place in New Hampshire, and he’s expected to lag way behind the top three contenders in the 13 states that vote on Super Tuesday.

MORE: Everything you need to know about Super Tuesday

You might not recognise this face. It’s John Kasich’s. He reckons he’s going to be president.

However, even without winning, Kasich is having a profound effect on the race. By consistently earning support in the high single digits, he’s sucking up votes that would otherwise be helping Donald Trump’s more viable rivals, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.

Those two have already declared the Republican contest a “three-way race”, implicitly dismissing Kasich’s chances, and their supporters have been pushing him to quit.

“The Republican establishment has a message for John Kasich: get out, and get out of Marco Rubio’s way,” Politico reported a week ago.

Many Republicans feel Kasich needs to get out of the race to help Marco Rubio.

Some Republicans, led by RedState writer Jay Caruso, are being even blunter than that.

“John Kasich and his team are delusional,” Caruso writes. “It is laughable for Kasich or anyone who supports him to think he has an actual path to the nomination.

“This is absurd. Kasich has about as much chance of getting the nomination as I do.

“For the sake of the country, get out of the race.”

“Just give me two more weeks fellas. I’ll get you your votes, I swear.”

Kasich really does seem to believe he has a shot. His strategy is no secret: it’s all about March 15, when his home state Ohio holds its primary, along with Rubio’s home state, Florida. Kasich is hoping he’ll win Ohio, then Rubio will lose Florida and drop out, making him the only reasonable alternative to Trump left standing.

“It’s on the 15th of March when this race narrows down, when Marco Rubio loses Florida and we win Ohio,” Kasich’s chief strategist told ABC News.

“If I don’t win my home state, I’ll get out. But you know what? I am going to win Ohio. I can promise you,” the candidate himself said on the campaign trail on Saturday.

The problem with this grand plan? By the time Kasich claims his assumed victory in Ohio, 45 per cent of the delegates who determine the nomination will have been allocated, and Trump’s headstart will be gigantic. So by staying in the race and splitting the vote with Rubio and Cruz for another two weeks, Kasich could end up denying all of them a chance to win.

Kasich at the most recent Republican debate.

Even so, Kasich is not about to change his course, or his tone. At last week’s debate, while Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz were throwing haymakers at Trump, Kasich stuck to his mantra of positivity, ignoring several clear opportunities to join the assault.

One moment stood out. Trump had just made the absurd claim that he could balance America’s $544 billion federal budget deficit simply by eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse”. CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer turned to Kasich, who was once chairman of the US Congress’s Budget Committee, and asked: “Can Mr Trump’s plan work?”

It was a yes or no question, and the obvious answer was “no”. Any other candidate would have attacked Trump. Instead, Kasich dodged.

Dodged a bullet there, buddy.

Trump, for his part, shot a few rare compliments in Kasich’s direction during the debate. Their refusal to attack each other — we’re talking about Trump, remember — led some in the media to float an intriguing theory. Is Kasich angling to become Trump’s pick for vice-president?

If the pair teamed up, their unity ticket could “act as a marriage between a brazen outsider and a member of the Republican establishment,” writes Myra Adams at National Review.

“A Trump/Kasich ticket could even end up being a truce signalling that party peace is at hand.

“Kasich could help make Trump’s nomination more palatable to nervous Republican leaders and ‘the establishment’. Most important, Kasich is highly qualified to take over as president if something happens.”

It makes a surprising amount of sense. And as the popular governor of a crucial swing state, Kasich offers more than a steady hand — he could also help win the general election.

So in the end, Kasich’s mad plan to defeat Trump could end up doing the exact opposite.