Kasich could have been the GOP's nomination. Instead he helped Trump.

It was obvious months ago that a lack of coordination among anti-Trump candidates had turned what could have been victories into narrow defeats. Much of this has been Kasich’s fault. The Ohio governor won his home state but has performed poorly almost everywhere else; he still has fewer delegates than Marco Rubio, who dropped out of the race a month and a half ago. But back in March, in the week following his victory in Ohio, Kasich acted like he was sweeping America off its feet. He headed to Utah to campaign, where he had no chance of winning. Rather than train his fire exclusively on Trump, he took just as many shots at Cruz. He campaigned hard in Wisconsin, where he had a fair number of friends and allies. Yet he was steamrolled by Cruz, thanks in large part to the fact that Gov. Scott Walker chose the firebrand Texas senator over his fellow Midwestern governor. That must have hurt…

Kasich continues to flail wildly, with no discernible plan or strategy, other than a vague belief that a contested Republican convention would eventually turn to him and anoint him as the nominee, as Dwight Eisenhower was selected in 1952. I didn’t know Eisenhower. Eisenhower wasn’t a friend of mine. But John Kasich is no Eisenhower. Dwight Eisenhower led the fight against the Nazis. Kasich is a moderately popular governor of Ohio who had the good fortune of presiding over the fracking boom. The saddest thing about Kasich’s baffling campaign is that if he’d played his hand differently, he’d have a decent case for being the Republican nominee in 2020.