“There is no hunger in the land for John Kasich,” said Ramesh Ponnuru, an influential conservative writer and policy expert.

He added, “Jeb Bush is a much more attractive candidate if you are an establishment donor. If you think well maybe Jeb’s not going to be able to make the sale, maybe then you go to Kasich, but even then Rubio’s got to be pretty attractive.”

Avik Roy, a conservative health care expert at the Manhattan Institute, bluntly questioned Kasich on Medicaid at the Wednesday night dinner in New York and came away unimpressed.

“He is passionate about the Medicaid expansion while also claiming he wants to repeal Obamacare,” said Roy. “I can’t say that he answered that in a way that is intellectually coherent. I don’t see how you could.”