the gop presidential race seems to have come down to just two men: donald trump and sen. ted cruz, r-texas.









but polling shows the candidate with the best chance of beating democratic front-runner hillary clinton is ohio gov. john kasich.









even after his loss in wisconsin to cruz, trump remains the leader for the gop nomination. barring something unexpected, trump should be the delegate leader going to the gop convention.









meanwhile, both men want ohio gov. john kasich to drop out because they believe they can win his delegates.









trump for his part argues that kasich has lost every race so far except his home state of ohio.









"here's the problem with kasich. first of all, i think he happens to take votes away from me<u+2026> i don't think he should be staying," the real estate mogul said.









but even though he's a very distant third in delegates, kasich is still polling the best against clinton, the likely democratic nominee.









trump's weakness is not only a high unfavorable rating - above 60 percent -<u+00a0> but that polls have shown he has trailed clinton in 11 of 12 target states that will determine the outcome in november.









according to realclearpolitics poll averages, trump does the worst against clinton, with the former state secretary leading him by an average of nearly 11. the third-place gop candidate, kasich, does best, leading clinton by six, while cruz trails her by three.









meanwhile, kasich has shown no sign he's ready to roll over.









"donald trump said i need to get out of the race because i am getting his voters. well, i've got news for him <u+2013> i am going to get a heck of a lot of his voters," the ohio governor told supporters.









but how accurate is the polling that shows kasich would do the best against clinton?









karlyn bowman, a public opinion analyst at the american enterprise institute, cautions that these polls aren't necessarily accurate because it's still a long way until the november election.









"polls have very little predictive value about national contests at this early stage," she said. "they usually aren't very reliable until about 100 days out from a campaign."









but none of that is stopping the feisty kasich. he may be way down in the delegate numbers, but he's still spoiling for a fight.









"i'm not a marshmallow or a pin cushion. you wanna take a whack at me? let's get it on," he said.









sources say kasich's strategy is to remain alive until a contested convention, hoping for 500 delegates or more, and then win over the other convention delegates with a positive message.









as crazy as it sounds, some republican insiders have said kasich just might be able to pull it off.
who's got the best chance against clinton? it's not who you think<u+2026>
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