When Texas Sen. Ted Cruz announced Tuesday night, after his defeat in Indiana, that he was suspending his presidential campaign, it was not a mortal blow to the stop-Trump movement. Many Republicans who oppose Donald Trump — because he is a self-serving, insecure conservative who is likely to alienate expansive swaths of the American electorate — were not particularly robust on Cruz, a staunch conservative but also a craven opportunist who has damaged the GOP’s brand with kamikaze stunts like his push to shut down the government in a doomed (and failed) attempt to defund Obamacare.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich is a different story. A robust conservative who talks like a liberal, Kasich has also been considered the Republican most likely to beat Hillary Clinton. He has represented the great white hope of Republicans who wanted a contentious national convention to save them from Trump. After watching Kasich announce Wednesday that he was suspending his campaign, I still don’t know why Kasich, who long ago lacked the ability to win delegates, waited until he was the last Republican standing to fold his tent and go home.
Kasich’s departure is embarrassing. In April, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll asked voters whether they viewed the candidates favorably or unfavorably. Only two candidates, Kasich and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., had more favorable than unfavorable ratings — Kasich by 12 percent and Sanders by 9 percent. The two least popular presidential candidates are their party’s presumptive nominees. Trump had a negative net poll rating of 41 percent (24 percent liked him, 65 percent disliked him), and Hillary Clinton had a negative rating of 24 percent (32 percent liked her, 56 percent disliked her).
It tells you how vulnerable Clinton is that she had to fight so challenging to defeat a 74-year-old self-described “democratic socialist” from a state with only one congressman. Democrats didn’t like her Senate vote in 2002 to invade Iraq, so they dumped her in 2008 in favor of Barack Obama. In 2016, they can say they’re okay with her sending all her emails to a private server as secretary of state, but they know it’s just another example of Clinton putting her career before the country.
Some Republicans are swallowing their saliva and lining up behind Trump. Others are burning their voter registration cards. Several have already pledged support for Clinton. GOP political consultant Kevin Spillane told me he is bitter that GOP voters rewarded Clinton with “dishonesty and cynicism” by choosing Trump. And: “I’ll vote for (libertarian) Gary Johnson as a protest vote.”
Me? I know there is only one good choice – postponing the decision until October.
