John Kasich is a fringe candidate

But this really understates Kasich’s poor performance. To start, the only reason that those finishes have started to go from fifth, to fourth, to third is that other candidates with no shot to win the nomination had the dignity to drop out. Kasich has demonstrated no such shame.

Beyond that, looking at just the order he finished understates how badly he’s losing in these states. For instance, in his second place finishes, he’s only come within single digits twice (in Vermont and D.C.). In New Hampshire, he came in second by 20 points; in Massachusetts by 31 points; and in Utah by 52 points.

If you add up all of the 31 states that Kasich has lost, he trailed the winner by an average of just over 30 points. He has fewer delegates than Sen. Marco Rubio, who dropped out of the race weeks ago – and even managed to lose to Rubio in Arizona a week after Rubio dropped out.

As for the Midwest, Kasich’s supposed stronghold? Outside of Ohio, seven Midwestern states have voted including Wisconsin, and he has done no better than third –losing by an average of 26 points. He was supposed to win in Michigan, but lost to both Donald Trump and Cruz.

Not only has Kasich done poorly in the states that have voted to date, looking at the primary calendar going forward, there’s no state that he has a clear edge.

Kasich’s theoretical hope is that he can capture the nomination in a contested convention, because he has done well in hypothetical general election polls against Hillary Clinton.

The problem is that theoretical general election matchups don’t matter if a candidate cannot unify his own party. And it’s hard to see how Kasich unifies the party if the convention rejects the candidates who end up capturing roughly 80 percent of the delegates in favor of a fringe candidate who got crushed nearly everywhere.

There’s actually a better argument for nominating a candidate who didn’t even seek the nomination than there is for nominating Kasich. At least with, say, House Speaker Paul Ryan, there’s no knowing for sure how he would have done. With Kasich, by the time the convention rolls around, we’ll know affirmatively that voters in 49 states rejected him.

Below is a list of Kasich’s finishes so far.

Iowa (8th place, lost by 26 points)

New Hampshire (2nd place, lost by 20 points)

South Carolina (5th place, lost by 25 points)

Nevada (5th place, lost by 42 points)

Alabama (5th place, lost by 39 points)

Alaska (5^th place, lost by 32 points)

Arkansas (5^th place, lost by 29 points

Georgia (5^th place, lost by 33 points)

Massachusetts (2^nd place, lost by 31 points)

Minnesota (5^th place, lost by 31 points)

Oklahoma (5^th place, lost by 31 points)

Tennessee (5^th place, lost by 34 points)

Texas (4^th place, lost by 40 points)

Vermont (2^nd place, lost by 2 points)

Virginia (4^th place, lost by 25 points)

Kansas (4^th place, lost by 38 points)

Kentucky (4^th place, lost by 22 points)

Louisiana (4^th place, lost by 35 points)

Maine (3^rd place, lost by 34 points)

Hawaii (4^th place, lost by 32 points)

Idaho (4^th place, lost by 38 points)

Michigan (3^rd place, lost by 12 points)

Mississippi (3^rd place, lost by 39 points)

DC (2^nd place, lost by 2 points)

Florida (4^th place, lost by 39 points)

Illinois (3^rd place, lost by 19 points)

Missouri (3^rd place, 31 points)

North Carolina (3^rd place, 28 points)

Ohio (1^st place, won by 11 points)

Arizona (4^th place, lost by 37 points)

Utah (2^nd place, lost by 52 points)

Wisconsin (3^rd place, losing by 25 points)