Kasich advisers say his principal competition would come from former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.). They consider Bush potentially hobbled by resistance to a third president from the same family. Walker, another two-term Midwestern governor, has less experience in national security.

Asked in the recent interview whether his message would be similar to Bush’s, Kasich said, “I don’t know anything about [Bush’s theme]. I really don’t. I’ve never listened to him. What’s “Right to Rise”? Getting up in the morning?”

Right to Rise is the name of Bush’s super PAC.

Kasich advisers view Rubio as having significant potential but faced with the problem of being a first-term senator who would be trying to follow a first-term senator — President Obama — to the White House. “We hired an inexperienced person to run the country,” a Kasich adviser said. “That didn’t work out very well. That plays well in his [Kasich’s] favor.”