Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night…
So the presidential election has come down to this for John Kasich: He must spend much of the next 10 days trying to defend his home state.
The super-PAC supporting him already has announced a six-figure TV buy just to help the Ohio governor win Ohio despite a 77 percent approval rating among likely Republican voters versus 57 percent for GOP party-crasher Donald Trump.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
Kasich’s strategists had talked boldly of his ability to win his home state rather easily, freeing him to campaign in places like Illinois and Missouri, major states with winner-take-all primaries on the same day as Ohio’s March 15 vote.
Although more out-of-state forays could be added, currently Kasich just has a couple of publicly scheduled trips outside Ohio after Monday, a Wednesday jaunt to Chicagoland and the final scheduled GOP debate Thursday in Miami.
Of course, many once-grand pronouncements have receded like the tide going out.
Kasich was supposed to beat expectations in South Carolina. His fourth-place finish was explained away as exceeding critics’ claims he had “no campaign” in the state.
Kasich counted on an endorsement by the Alabama governor to help him in that Super Tuesday state. He wound up a distant fifth of the five candidates with 4.4 percent last week.
The campaign had talked about a New Hampshire-like effort to “plant a flag” in Michigan, the “ gateway to the Midwest” where Kasich would transform the presidential campaign. Now the conversation centers on trying to achieve a second-place finish in Tuesday’s vote.
Kasich has done extremely well in obtaining newspaper endorsements. But even there, his lack of tangible success is costing him.
Florida’s Sun Sentinel rejected home-state candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, calling Kasich “the best of the bunch.” However, the paper wound up not endorsing anyone.
“But while Kasich is the most qualified of the four candidates left standing, he lacks presidential presence. … Perhaps in a more-rational election year, the Sun Sentinel would endorse John Kasich. But we can’t urge you to vote for someone who doesn’t have a chance of winning the nomination.”