Had John Kasich come out and said he was running to be Donald Trump’s Vice President, nobody would have doubted it the way he’s been operating his campaign for the last few weeks. While he says he would never take a VP role, his positive message seems to be custom tailored to represent the anti-Trump. It’s not done in a way that would hurt Trump or truly differentiate himself from him. It’s like a calling card that says, “Chris Christie is too much like you and I’m the opposite because I’m pretty nice.”
Whether there’s already a backroom deal in place for him to be Trump’s VP is unknown and conventional wisdom dictates that he would drop out before Ohio (and Michigan for that matter) if he was already all on board the Trump train, but then again we know that Trump is smart enough to accept a loss in exchange for making his guy appear stronger than he is. If Kasich wins Michigan and/or Ohio, it doesn’t really hurt Trump once he drops out and joins the campaign. Losing a few delegates doesn’t hurt too badly as long as it’s not to Ted Cruz. On the other hand, if Kasich loses Michigan and Ohio, it opens up a nice opportunity for him to join the Trump campaign.
Some will say that it’s a ludicrous thought, that Kasich would never sell out like that, but those same people underestimate Kasich’s ego and desire to be in a national leadership role. As much as he likes Ohio, it’s always just been a stepping stone.
Then again, we could just be seeing what we want to see from a many who clearly has no place running for the big job.