if the GOP had a say (and they were as dirty as the DNC were revealed to be in the primaries), the nominee would have been Rubio. a lot of people thought he'd come out the winner if not for the Trump phenomenon.

Ohio was the only state that went for Kasich, and he just happens to be their governor.

Now that he's come out as not voting for Hillary, but writing in McCain, people who probably voted for him twice are calling him a "RINO" for not going for Trump.

it isn't just the poor and poorer "working class" GOP voters, either. it's the cul-de-sac white voters who are in the upper end of the working class, income wise. basically people w/jobs as well as people w/o jobs (or w/inconsistent employers). they ain't fuckin' with no one who ain't speaking "their" language, and this year it was Trump.

the GOP knows that anti-Black racism is central to building a coalition of people to support their platform of Poo Poo. they're losing national polls/votes with the white "deplorables", and they know they need to diversify.

who better than Rubio? he could have been their "Obama". go out there like Bush and promise "compassionate conservatism" and look reasonable (like Kasich) and show that the face of the GOP doesn't necessarily need to be white.

that alone would make up for loss in the "deplorable" vote (by their measure) and their general ignoring of the black vote, by bringing more non-black POC voters who may not be all about the Democrats.

Bobby Jindal, Michael Steele, Ben "NyQuil" Carson, these were all major attempts to diversify their base. Steele is all but out the door. Carson drowning in his own NyQuil. Bobby sniffin' butane.

If not Rubio, someone like Nikki Haley who can simply "not be white" but "white-friendly" would be their best bet. After Trump, I have no idea how they pull that off without closing all the primaries.