Gilozard: A lot of people in OH apparently loathe him deeply too, which says bad things about his potential diplomacy skills.
Plus, he has practically no chance to get the nomination.
HereForTheBeer: To be fair, that could be said for all of the remaining candidates except maybe Sanders. And while they don't loathe Sanders himself they likely loathe his plans, which may as well be the same thing when running for office.
And yes, Kasich has no chance.
Gonna be an interesting election, and I'm kind of amused this time around. So many heads getting ready to explode, as if any of the candidates are really going to make enormous changes in any direction.
Indeed; it is in fact mathematically impossible for Kasich to be nominated, based on the arcane and esoteric caucus/primary system. His only (very remote) chance is if Trump does not win a high enough percentage in the last few months leading to the GOP convention to beat Cruz outright. Then, in Cleveland, an act of divine intervention or hypnotism causes a majority of both Trump AND Cruz "delegates" to suddenly change their minds, and vote for Kasich--a person who probably to them seems like the complete opposite of the candidate they were chosen to represent.
Bottom line is, most Republican voters will be dissatisfied at best and riotous at worst, no matter whether Trump wins or not. At this point, even not knowing who the *actual* nominee will be, the main difference in what will happen between the conventions and November is how many people stick with Trump, and how angry/disgusted/depressed or in denial everyone else will be because of that number.
XPPP
P.S. If I would be so bold as to make wild, purely speculative predictions on the statistics of that last point, I would estimate that by the time of the convention...
Situation 1: If Trump's supporters never get past the 33-43% range that they've floated around after March 1, then there will be a lot of angry grumbling--but maybe, *just maybe*, the Republican Party might just be able to pull itself together around an "anti-Trump" candidate--and that person will lose to Hillary, but keep it close enough to preserve some shred of dignity.
Pulling off a block of Trump's nomination at this point, with no riots afterwards, would be an incredible achievement for them--but it would only happen if they are both skillful AND lucky. So far, they aren't managing either one of those gifts.
Situation 2: If Trump increases to the 43-53% range, but doesn't secure a clear majority of delegates, then there might just be enough working-class activists and protesters*, getting angry enough from the nomination voting, that civil unrest may erupt in Cleveland or elsewhere; (*edited) if Trump won, it might be anti-Trump partisans and independents. If Trump is rejected, it might be the Trump supporters. Either way, not only is this a nightmare scenario for the GOP, and not only would they lose in November, it might make GOP congressmen lose, too, just by being part of the same party that has stirred up so much controversy.
The Democrats might not only keep the White House, they might win back a majority of the Senate and increase their power as the opposition party in the House. If that happened, the new President might actually get bills passed in Congress again, and THAT would be radical, indeed.
Situation 3: Trump's followers grow unchecked and he surpasses 55% or more, clinching the GOP nomination with a terrible, rambling speech about not only how great he is, but how he's officially changing the name of the party to the TRUMP PARTY, and all bets are off. He will invite anyone who doesn't like it to leave, perhaps to Mexico, or worse, to the Democratic party. Hillary will be forced to choose Bernie as running mate, and the reality TV spectacle will continue unabated.
Who knows what would happen? Perhaps we'll start hearing trumpets and the Anti-Christ will be revealed. Whoever it is, the Anti-Christ will then run as a third-party candidate, but lose, because everyone knows you can't win as a third-party candidate in America. Right?
(After all, two-thirds of the voting public just look for the R or the D, they don't even look at the names. The Anti-what? Oh. Well, never mind.)
tl;dr? It isn't likely that "the candidates" themselves will "make enormous changes."
But if enough of the minority of Americans who vote in primaries, vote Trump...then one of "The Two" parties in "the USA 2-party system" may completely fall apart.
That seems pretty enormous to me.
(And alarming, too.)