What Kasich's Ohio Win Means

In a result not many people saw coming when there were 16 GOP candidates crowding the field, John Kasich is among the last three standing after a double-digit win over Donald Trump in Ohio. But is his first win too little, too late for the governor, who called himself "the little engine that could" after the victory? A roundup of reactions:

• It's now mathematically impossible for Kasich to clinch the nomination before the Republican National Convention, reports Politico, which notes that he would have to secure more than 100% of the remaining delegates for this to happen. But if he wins more states after Ohio, a contested convention becomes more likely, as does the possibility that Kasich could prevail as a consensus candidate.

• "Popular Sitting Republican Governor Wins Home State. This should change the tide," quips Nicholas Confessore at the New York Times.
• Kasich has a chance, but it will depend on him keeping momentum going and the GOP establishment executing "a near-flawless strategy in the coming weeks and months," according to Cleveland.com. Two things in his favor: his positive attitude and the fact that the GOP convention will be held on his home turf.
• Kasich's campaign claims that he will enter the convention in the best position to become the nominee, though in reality he "now seems likely to hang around at the periphery of the Trump-Cruz race for the next few months, hoping to collect delegates and lead a revivifying of the GOP establishment in the event the convention deadlocks and he emerges as a consensus candidate," predicts Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post.
• The nomination is still very much a long shot for the governor, but he has managed to slow down Trump's rise and give the GOP establishment a boost, according to the Wall Street Journal, which calls the Ohio vote a test of whether GOP voters could be "persuaded to support an experienced, accomplished politician despite widespread disgust with party-establishment leaders."
• Is Kasich really the moderate he appears to be? FiveThirtyEight analyzes his record and finds that he is indeed more moderate than the average Republican in today's Congress, though he would have been more conservative than average in 1980 and is still very conservative on issues such as abortion.

(More Election 2016 stories.)