In listening to an interview John Kasich had with Sean Hannity, I was struck by what he clearly wants the Hannity audience to think is his message: I knew Ronald Reagan.

I can’t recall a many sentences in which he didn’t use Reagan’s name (possibly in vain) to justify his candidacy, and only in passing (and upon Hannity’s insistence) did he even mention the Ohio budget. Instead, he spoke of the past, of his days as a congressman, and about what they accomplished. One of those Reagan sentences was the tired line about how Reagan was willing to negotiate with Tip O’Neill.

Kasich is, of course, missing the key point here: Reagan negotiated from a position of strength. He didn’t capitulate or compromise his party’s views before negotiation even started. He also wasn’t afraid to shut down the government, either. Reagan and O’Neill negotiated their way to the middle, giving both sides victories (Reagan picking up a lot more than the Democrats really like to give him credit for).

John Kasich, however, isn’t going to do that as president. He said in the interview that we need politicians willing to set aside party and ideology in order to get things done. That is an actual quote said by a man running for president in a party that is tired of its leadership doing that (hence Donald Trump being a thing). The man has absolutely no chance, no matter what his New Hampshire polling is saying, of getting the nomination because at the end of the day he is everything the base utterly despises in its politicians – capitulating fools who want to be liked more than they want to govern.

The governor of Ohio is wrong in everything he promotes and stands for. He will likely not get the nomination, but we should fight extra hard to make sure he doesn’t.