In order to secure the republican nomination for President a candidate must secure 1237 delegates. As of today, Kasich has exactly 144. There are 918 delegates left to win. Even if Kasich swept the remaining primaries, he cannot get over 1062, and while he is scheduled to be on the Pennsylvania ballot, he did not get enough signatures to legally be on it. He can only be removed if a law suit is filed to take his name off. If Trump or Cruz were to file such a challenge, he cannot win, and he misses out on another 71 in that winner take all contest.
So why is he still running? It was pointed out early on that his roll was that of a splitter, some one intended to strip votes and delegates from a movement candidate. The republican race is a stacked game of cards. Had Trump not entered the race, any movement candidate would have been stifled by now. Ben Carson was one movement candidate they wanted to stop.
The republican hierarchy believes it is their right to decide who gets to run and who gets nominated. They have picked the liberal light weights we have endured since 1984 when Reagan was reelected.
We have endured the turd sandwichs of Reject Romney aka obamAA-care failure beta boy, and McInsane the North Vietnamese air ace from Arizona.
We sat silently while liberal spender George W Bush force fed us the PaTraitor Act that expanded big brother and our national debt in a way that made liberals yellow with envy. The same can be said about his daddy Mr. I know new taxes.
That said, let me be clear that Kasich is not their crown prince. He is the sacrificial Judas goat leading voters astray. The crown prince, for now, is still the beclowned low energy punk John Edwards Bush, and if the voters rebell, they may try reject Romney again.
If Trump secures the needed 1237, and I believe he will, Kasich is just another bank rolled failure they can report on their 1040's. If by some strange chance Cruz pulls off a win, we can expect to see a challenge to his constitutional eligibility which he cannot win. Hillary's challenge to Barry Soetoro was stopped by the liberal machine. They did not want deer reader challenged, he was Soros' pick and the left bows down when their moneyed con men bellar. So for that matter do the republicans.
Or should I say the establishment republicans? These people are any thing but conservative. They are the moneyed elite and they want control.
Cruz is attempting to paint himself as an outsider, and in a small way, he is. He is the least liked member of the Senate. Other than that, he is a bought and paid for vassal of the big banks. Establishment to the core, but his lack of popularity means they don't want him in the oval office.
As for Kasich, the only reason he has survived this long is that no one paid attention to him. In the debates he has been almost a wall flower as splitter after splitter attacked Trump. Think of the fight scenes from the movie Road House. Each leader in the dynamic had his pawns, expendables who were sent charging in to the fray with little purpose but to cause harm before they died, and hopefully reveal a weakness. First it was snarley Carly. after Trump demolished Mehgyn's sloppy attempt to derail him, she was there to launch the war on women attack. It fell like a spit ball in a blizzard.
The candidates mostly did not debate the issues. Trump stated a position that they sought to undermine, and it was all about attacking him. If they found his stance was popular, they would then claim it for a plank in their platform. If they were honest and true, we would have had sixteen Trump clones going into Iowa.
Kasich had a set purpose, to derail any Surge in Ohio. He succeeded, and that is why he is politically alive today. He was held in reserve for a specific part of the fight. That he remains is only because the rest have failed so miserably.He is like the carrier Hōshō in the battle of Midway, alive and ready to continue the fight. The Japanese were a bit smarter, or maybe inaccurately informed. They chose to not continue the fight.
Make no mistake, they intend to fight to the bitter last. Trump to date has 693 delegates. The thing to understand is that those delegates are not necessarily Trump supporters, many would rather be voting for Jeb, but because of party laws they are required to cast a vote for Trump. Only one though, after the first round they are free to support whom ever they want. These people are die hard republican small fish. they are either the also rans, the wanna be's, or the climbers of the party. They are not rank and file conservatives if they are conservatives at all.
In all likelyhood, if Trump does not have the needed majority, the first round would see 1200 votes cast for him, the second would see 900 for Cruz, then they would nominate Jeb or mittens and it would be 2472 votes for the turtle. End result? Hillary wins.
So friend, if you are in the 20 remaining states or territories yet to primary, Please oh please, don't waste your vote on Kasich.