John Kasich, the governor of Ohio, launches his bid to become president of the United States in Columbus today. This is not his first tilt: he ran in 2000 but dropped out early owing to lacklustre support. With seven other current or former governors already declared, he will again struggle for attention. That’s a pity. Mr Kasich won re-election last year by a huge margin (31 points) in his archetypal swing state. His CV also includes spells in Congress and the private sector. And he is the closest the 2016 field has to a compassionate conservative, a term that once described a winning formula but is now more like an insult among Republicans. A party more interested in victory than in ideological purity would take Mr Kasich seriously. The polls, which say just 1-2% of primary voters support him, suggest he will struggle to be heard.