Read: John Kasich tells New Hampshire: ‘I’ll be back.’

Kasich told ABC News on November 25 that he’s “very seriously” eyeing another presidential quest. He mused, “Do I run because I’ve determined that I can win, or is it important for me to make such a good showing that I can send a message that can disrupt the political system in this country?” Does he try as a Republican, or will there be a sizable market—“an ocean of people who sit in the middle”—for a third-party bid? Bottom line: “What do I owe to my country?”

Kasich is no more enlightened about the foreseeable future than his fellow Americans. Nobody aside from Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his tight-knit team has a clue when, or to what extent, a final report might devastate Trump or his inner circle. Nobody knows when, or if, the bullish economy could level off in advance of 2020. And first and foremost, there’s the predictable unpredictability of Trump himself—who, in the words of the Kasich strategist John Weaver, “is like a coyote on crack running through a minefield.”

Weaver, who plotted strategy for John McCain during the latter’s underdog challenge to George W. Bush in 2000, is clearly thirsting to joust with Trump, if only he and Kasich can find their most advantageous footing. Weaver tells me, “There’s a lot of time in front of us. Every day this president shows more willingness to move away from the norms … He and his people don’t scare us. They’re all mad as a hatter. If they weren’t working for Trump, the only jobs they could get are in the Gotti crime family or working as prison guards.”

Read: Why John Kasich is still standing

But that sentiment is not generally shared among grassroots Republicans; according to the latest Gallup poll, 86 percent still pledge fealty to Trump. (Among all Americans, the fealty share is 38 percent.) And except for isolated acts of rebellion, Republicans on Capitol Hill seem determined to ignore the blue wave that has swept them from power in the House. Nationwide, House Democratic candidates drew 9.4 million more votes than their Republican counterparts—the Democrats’ winning margin was 8.4 percent, bigger than the red waves of 1994, 2010, and 2014—and they captured red suburban districts in states such as Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. Even so, few Republicans have voiced second thoughts about Trump. Few have said a word about the latest Mueller revelation, set forth in Michael Cohen’s latest tell-all guilty plea, that Trump, despite a string of false denials, stumped for president while pursuing a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow with Russians who were, at the same time, illegally conspiring to help elect him.

And no Republican in Congress, chastened by the midterm results, has condemned Trump for “divisions, paranoia, isolation, and promises that can never, ever be fulfilled.” Those were John Kasich’s words, in a speech he delivered back in April 2016, when Trump’s nomination was deemed inevitable.