Photo: The Enquirer

John Kasich, Republican governor of Ohio and failed presidential candidate, is no stranger to delusions of grandeur. According to a friend close to the Columbus political scene, Kasich was saying he still had a chance to win the nomination just 2 days before the Republican convention. When told that it was nonsense, he allegedly slammed his hands on the table and stormed out of the room without another word.

Governor Kasich recently gave an interview to the Cincinnati Enquirer with the headline reading: 

John Kasich: What does GOP even stand for?

The Enquirer reports:

“I don’t like any of them, on both sides,” Kasich told reporters and editors from The Enquirer. “I can’t even tell you what the Republicans exactly stand for. Now, I can tell you what I stand for.”

Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio, failed in his 2016 bid for president but has remained a vocal critic of some stances and actions taken by President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress. He has said he doesn’t plan to run for president in 2020, although he’s clearly keeping his options open.

His national campaign committee is still functioning, he is publishing a book later this month that emphasizes his differences in philosophy from Trump, and his allies have formed a nonprofit to support his ideas.

The most interesting piece of the article comes a few paragraphs later:

Teens and twentysomethings whom Kasich knows aren’t using party labels, he said. Increasingly, it seems, he doesn’t want to do so either – although he refrained from outright rejecting his party label in the Enquirer interview.

Governor Kasich is clearly still having delusions of grandeur and hopes to run for president as an independent in 2020, challenging President Trump and the soon-to-be-coronated Warren-Booker Democratic ticket. Kasich, however, is on the verge of irrelevancy. His gubernatorial term is up in 2019, his Lt. Governor, Mary Taylor, likely won’t survive the Ohio GOP gubernatorial primary, and the Ohio State Republican Central Committee voted Kasich’s loyal solider, Matt Borges, out of the party chairmanship (Borges was replaced with Trump’s pick, Jane Timken).

Nobody is listening to John Kasich anymore. Unfortunately, Kasich isn’t doing any listening either.

I voted for Governor Kasich in the Ohio primary for president. However, even entertaining the idea of attempting to split the party in 2020 is a fool’s errand. Kasich’s book has a nice title, but how can he unite a nation when he can’t even unite with the rest of the GOP, and all over hurt feelings?

Unfortunately, Kasich seems to be as deluded today as he was 2 days before the GOP convention.