The Cruz-Kasich Deal

Aaron Blake writes at The Washington Post:

Ted Cruz and John Kasich just cut a very public deal with one another to stop Donald Trump. The basics of it are pretty simple: Kasich concedes the Indiana primary in hopes that Cruz can beat Trump there, and Cruz does the inverse in Oregon and New Mexico, where Kasich figures to perform well.

The idea is basically that they work together to hold Trump below the 1,237 delegates he needs to secure the nomination -- even if that means conceding delegates to one another. The Fix's Philip Bump ran the numbers and deduced that this might not help all that much.

What's also interesting here is that this isn't the first time Kasich has been presented with such a bargain. Way back in March, Marco Rubio's campaign essentially conceded the Ohio primary and took the unusual step of telling its supporters to vote for Kasich instead. This was done in hopes that Kasich would deprive Trump of delegates in Ohio -- a winner-take-all state that would have been a huge win for Trump. It was also apparently done in hopes that Kasich would return the favor in Florida -- another winner-take-all home state that Rubio needed as badly as Kasich needed Ohio.

The Kasich campaign's response: No dice.