A loudmouthed former Lehman exec with a liberal social agenda might be Wall Street's one last hope, because Trump.

With the financial sector's on-again-off-again boo, Hillary Clinton, still the only legitimate candidate on the Democratic side and a Republican primary utterly hijacked by a reality television star, Wall Street is left asking "Who can we give all this money and support to though?"

That question has only been made more complicated by the fact that cravenly bashing "Wall Street" and/or "hedge funds" has become the thing to do across the political spectrum. So what's a banker to do with all that cash burning a whole in his Brioni-sewn pockets?

Scott Walker is no longer taking checks, Chris Christie's inevitable personality bomb seems to be ticking ever closer to going off, JEB! seems like a stock that you want to watch rather than buy right now, and Marco Rubio is, well... Marco Rubio.

Who's left?

Stop giggling. This is real.

Right, Business Insider?

Wall Street may be warming up to Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Steve Schwarzman, the private-equity titan and Blackstone Group cofounder, hosted a meet-and-greet for the Republican presidential candidate in New York Tuesday, when dozens of CEOs pressed flesh with the man making a name for himself in a crowded GOP field.

Sure, Kasich might be a bit bombastic, and he definitely suffers from a bit of foot-in-mouth disease from time to time but in the era of Trumpian politics, he comes off like a butler in a Merchant-Ivory film. He's also a former Lehman executive with a socially centrist record and experience as both legislator and governor.

Maybe for those reasons, he's getting some homies in the C-Suites to listen. Proof of that is how Steve Schwarzman seems to have backed up the rich guy truck for his little event yesterday.

Schwarzman wasn't the only big private-equity executive in the room. Apollo Global founder Leon Black was in attendance, the source said, as was Loews Corp. CEO James Tisch. The event was held at Schwarzman's office, the source said.

We're not telling anyone how to do their job, but one way that Kasich could ensure that those checks clear is to become the first genuine defender of Wall Street in the Republican primary. He's already dipped his toe in the idea pool of being pro-carried interest loophole, and he's been on the record touting his close friendship with Dick Fuld, so it wouldn't be a huge cognitive leap to become a full-throated guardian of Wall Street's rep.

Someone eventually has to fill this role, and it might as well be John Kasich... or someone else.

We'll see once Donald Trump releases some oxygen back into the room.

Wall Street might be opening its doors to a dark-horse Republican presidential candidate [BI]