I'm neither, I just don't believe Kasich would have won the rust-belt as easily. I do believe he would win NV, NH, Co, and VA though
I disagree, I think winning PA/WI was going to be easier than winning VA/NH/etc. for pretty much any Republican nominee (even someone like Cruz or Rubio), simply because those states are far more elastic, have not trended strongly Democratic in the recent past, and Democrats have a lower floor there. Most of those Midwestern states were never really solidly Democratic to begin with (remember how close WI was in 2000/2004 or how well Republicans did there in 2010 and 2014?). And the “PA is fool's gold for Republicans” narrative was always going to be disproven at some point anyway.
