Thoughts on Kasich not attending the GOP convention...

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His conduct is shameful. Obviously, it means that he broke his pledge, which signifies dishonesty; but he's also hurting numerous people who are running for mayor, governor, house representative, and senator. Polls show that only 5% of people split their ballots between parties, so fewer votes for Trump entails fewer votes for all Republicans nationwide.

For the sake of the party, Kasich should support Trump.

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I disagree with Kasich on plenty of issues, but his refusal to give in to Priebus and Trump proves that he's a principled and honorable person.

Very proud of him for actually sticking to his principles.  Hopefully he is rewarded for it in 2020.  I gained so much respect for the man.

There's no obligation for officeholders to support the nominee of their party. So this is what he should do if the party has a terrible pick.

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Except Kasich took a pledge to vote for the party's nominee. You don't take that pledge if someone for whom you will never vote is running; that is dishonesty.

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the stubby-fingered rapist was the first to back out of the pledge, guys. your talking point is nonsense, as usual.

So? If Trump does something wrong, then is Kasich justified in doing wrong too?

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Not to get too bogged down in moral and ethical dilemmas, but the "pledge" was meant to be a unifier for the GOP, around certain policies and values.  Trump clearly does not believe in them, nor does he have any set values or beliefs that I can discern (certainly none that cannot quickly be changed for opportunistic reasons).  He is not GOP nor was he ever going to be.  

Kudos to Kasich (and others), who recognized this, and who saw how much his divisiveness and entertainment reality show was an abomination of the normal primary election process.  If I had to say it from a legal and ethical standpoint, Trump's conduct and comments nullified any so-called pledge.

I am just sorry that Kasich did not stay in, as there could have been a real fight, now that Trump's ineptness is clearly coming out.

the pledge was explicitly built around every candidate following it. the minute one of them pulled out, it became null and void.

Really? Tell me what part of the pledge supports that thought (especially since you use the word "explicitly"):

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/09/02/us/politics/document-the-republican-national-committee-presidential-loyalty-oath.html

The pledge is as straightforward as possible, affirming that the losing candidate will support the party's nominee no matter what. There is no ambiguity or fine print that enables a losing candidate to break the pledge if the nominee is bad or if someone else breaks the pledge first. In fact, the pledge pointedly says, "regardless of who it is," which indicates that bad candidates must get support too.

You're just mis-characterizing the pledge in manner that fits your defense of Kasich.