Maybe John Weaver is a political genius and we just can’t see it. Maybe his plan – which always consists of running against conservatives – will one day earn someone the Republican nomination for President. Thus far, though, the results have been pretty abysmal. In 2012, Weaver worked for a guy (Jon Huntsman) who was by all accounts more conservative than Mitt Romney, but their campaign plan to call conservatives “stupid” and “crazy” turned out not to be so great at getting votes. This year, he’s trying pretty much the exact same tactic with John Kasich.

Kasich’s campaign this year has been basically right out of the classic Weaver playbook of trying to get people to vote for him because they hate him. It’s counterintuitive, especially for a guy who was relatively obscure outside of Ohio when this race began, but maybe it will work, especially in New Hampshire! Wait…

Well goodness, that doesn’t look encouraging for Weaver and Team Kasich. The reason for it is pretty simple. Voters tend to think that Kasich is a “jerk” or that he “expanded Obamacare in Ohio” or that he “regularly accuses people who disagree with him politically of being bad Christians.”

Kasich, however, has come up with a whole different reason:

KASICH: As you know, Hugh, I’m always accused, or sometimes have been accused of having too big of a heart in the Republican primary.

HH: That’s true.

JK: Well, I do have a big heart, and I also have a good brain.

Man. Kasich. Literally no one has accused you of that. Not any of the other candidates, nor any major pundits, nobody. That’s absolutely not an attack people are leveling against you. That’s an attack you invented yourself and then accused others of making against you because you thought it made you sound good.

In fact, none of the other candidates are attacking you at all, because they don’t have to. You’re doing a capital job of attacking yourself by acting like Bob Dole’s grumpier, less accomplished, more hectoring brother.

Memo to John Kasich: “You’re too big of a jerk” isn’t special young people code for “you have too big of a heart.” Glad I could help clear that up.