Following Donald Trump’s win in Indiana’s primary Tuesday, Ted Cruz finally did the inevitable and announced he’s dropping out of the presidential race. We really aren’t all that sad to see “lyin Ted” go, but we are bummed that we officially have to acknowledge Donald Trump as the Republican party’s presumptive nominee.

But wait, isn’t someone else still chugging along in the GOP primaries? What’s his name again?

Oh yeah, John Kasich!

Granted it’s kind of hard to remember the Ohio governor when he’s lost every state except his home state and still trails Cruz and Rubio, who both value numbers and logic and have dropped out.

Stephen Colbert couldn’t help but make light of this during Wednesday’s episode of the “Late Show.”

Colbert mocked Kasich’s mathematically impossible odds, as well as a recent video released from a pro-Kasich Super PAC imagining Kasich winning the nomination. In typical Colbert fashion, the comedian crafted his own heavily photoshopped ad imagining a world where Kasich is in fact president…and a five-term one at that!

In Colbert’s fantasy, President Kasich prompts Obama to resign early to make way for him, defeats ISIS, balances the budget, and defeats spider beasts from space. And we can’t forget to mention that he also throws the winning pass in the Super Bowl with three seconds left to, who else, John Kasich!

Sadly Kasich will likely never do any of these things, but it still makes us laugh.

Unfortunately, there has been lots of speculation that Kasich could announce he’s dropping out today, but that has not yet been officially confirmed.

Watch Colbert Imagine Kasich as President Below

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Last week, Governor Scott Walker became the first candidate to drop out of the running for the Republican presidential nomination. His departure from the primaries has led to a wide range of reactions, from utter shock, to great relief, to unoriginal jokes. No matter your opinion on this small town Colorado native turned runner up student government president turned college dropout, there is no doubt that he was a solid candidate. An exciting one? No, but a solid one. His position on some of the most important issues to Republican primary voters were almost uniformly in line. He held tenure for three terms as governor in a swing state while only being recalled one little time. Moreover, his position on the core issue of this recall, bargaining rights for public unions, made him a conservative hero, and thrust him onto the national stage. Perhaps most importantly, Walker rides Harley Davidson motorcycles and is a good Midwestern Christian. So how did this walking, talking embodiment of rice cakes become the quickest failed campaign in modern politics?

Well, people watched him talk. If you were to describe Scott Walker as a candidate, he would appear to be one of the strongest candidates. Unfortunately, as we watched him drowned out by bigger voices in two straight debates, it was hard to see such strengths. The constant coverage of these two debates ensures that voters do not forget about his dismal performances. Due to the incredibly long span of time in which primaries are held, candidates must hold on to the excitement and support that they originally garnered. Just ask Hillary Clinton about how hard that is.

In addition to their length, primary campaigns require millions of dollars, which means many devoted supporters and maybe a billionaire donor here and there. In any other election season, with these issues still remaining, Scott Walker would be a candidate who sticks around until the end of the primaries. Unfortunately for him, this election’s primary voters have no interest in a run-of-the-mill establishment governor. This is a group of voters who have dealt with eight years of a wildly liberal Obama administration intent on limiting religious liberty, weakening America’s stance in the world, and involving government in every facet of our lives. Or at least that’s what many primary voters feel has been the case. Changing the course of this country would require someone who is willing to think outside the box and speak his mind. Scott Walker didn’t seem to fit the bill for those voters.

Scott Walker’s exit from the Republican primaries is a case study in everything wrong with American politics. In the age of a 24-hour news cycle intent on telling its viewers who is winning at every moment in primaries that run for over a year, require millions of dollars in funding, and are decided by radical primary voters who reward borderline racist and Islamophobic speech with huge campaign donations and poll boosts, solid candidates become unelectable. And that is how a candidate who was originally the front-runner at his announcement abruptly spiraled into dismal poll numbers and eventually dropped out. Here’s to hoping Scott Walker finds more success as a bedtime audio book narrator. Or maybe a NyQuil spokesperson.

Maurin Mwombela

Maurin Mwombela is a member of the University of Pennsylvania class of 2017 and was a Law Street Media Fellow for the Summer 2015. He now blogs for Law Street, focusing on politics. Contact Maurin at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Why Did Scott Walker Really Drop Out of the Presidential Race? appeared first on Law Street.

Scott Walker has officially dropped out of the race to become the 2016 Republican Presidential nominee. In such a crowded field, it’s not surprising that the herd is starting to thin itself, at least a little bit. But what is surprising is the reasoning that Walker gave–his announcement contained what was clearly a not-so-veiled jab against frontrunner Donald Trump.

Walker’s brief, but powerful, statement is below:

He began with comments about Ronald Reagan’s optimism, a characteristic he noted was lacking from the stage at the debate last Wednesday, which it just so happens was hosted at the Ronald Reagan presidential library in California. Walker parlayed that statement about lack of optimism into an indictment on how the primary race has been progressing so far, and then his announcement that he will be suspending his campaign.

He stated:

Today, I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive, conservative message can rise to the top of the field. With this in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately.

I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same so that the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive, conservative alternative to the current front-runner. This is fundamentally important to the future of our party, and, more important, the future of the country.

The “current front-runner” is really the crucial part here–Walker is clearly referencing business mogul Donald Trump, who soared to the front of the polls despite his consistently racist, sexist, petty, and inappropriate rhetoric.

This sudden burst of patriotism and a desire to fight Trump obviously isn’t the only reason that Walker is dropping out–this isn’t a purely altruistic move. Walker burst onto the scene as a potential frontrunner when he declared his candidacy this summer, but quickly stagnated after a lukewarm performance in the first debate, and hasn’t done much to stand out since then. In fact, dropping out of the race is by far the most interesting and news-worthy thing that Walker has done since he declared his presidency. Given Scott’s stagnating campaign, money was apparently slow coming in, and his campaign allegedly was having a hard time paying his bills. There were also allegations that his campaign wasn’t built up properly, or was mismanaged.

Most recently, there are rumors that Walker’s campaign is coming to an end as a result of some sort of scandalous story that’s due to break in the next few days. Buzzfeed has claimed that there’s a rumor being passed around by top donors about Walker’s campaign manager, Rick Wiley, but did not explain what the rumor concerned. A former campaign worker, Liz Mair, has mentioned the possibility of a scandal, but what it could be about is still very much unknown.

So, why exactly Walker dropped out is incredibly unclear, but he did choose a monumental and effective way to do so. While he probably could have lasted a little while longer, dropping out when Trump is still in the lead by quite a bit gave a powerful credence to his comments. Given that Walker wasn’t polling particularly well, who knows where his share of the voters will end up, but he certainly made some pretty powerful points about coalescing against a candidate who can take down Trump.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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