August 27, 2017 12:04 PM UTC

Gov. Kasich Shuts Down "Kasichlooper 2020"

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: As Ernest Luning of the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman reported on Friday, Hick himself seems to have dismissed the idea.

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Politico reporting–where Colorado’s Gov. John Hickenlooper was perhaps more content to let the press and public speculate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich puts an end to talk of a possible independent partisan-bending presidential ticket comprised of the two men:

Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Sunday that he and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper will not form a bipartisan ticket for a 2020 presidential bid, shooting down rumors that the pair had been considering such a move.

“Chuck, look, Kasich/Hickenlooper. You couldn’t–first of all, you couldn’t pronounce it. And secondly, you couldn’t fit it on a bumper sticker,” [Pols emphasis] the Ohio governor, a Republican who ran for the GOP nomination in 2016 and has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump’s, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Pressed by host Chuck Todd that his bumper sticker answer fell short of a denial, Kasich offered a more emphatic answer: “The answer is no, OK?”

As we said last week, this was never going to amount to more than fantasy sports, since the logistics of an independent presidential bid are daunting and the two governors are actually quite far apart on critical issues like reproductive choice. To the extent they can present a unified front on protecting health care reform in both of their states–not to mention the rest of the nation–that’s good enough politically and morally to make the effort worthwhile.

Hickenlooper vs. Kasich in 2020, on the other hand? That might be a sign of healthier politics in America in general.