Originally Posted by
The Don
Sure, but those are professional candidates, who never expect to win the nomination, much less the Presidency.
Puppycow was asking about "serious challengers" not serial candidates. I think that if you're a GOP member with serious ambition to become President then if Trump is running in 2020 and he still has 80% approval rating among GOP supporters then I don't think someone who has legitimate ambitions to be President should challenge him in the primaries.
If these are the only considerations, you'd be right. But these aren't the only considerations, a serious contender could still hope to join him in the cabinet, earning experience for later. Trump airing dirty laundry today won't hurt so much 12 years later. Alternatively if the candidate is old, too old to wait that long, he could still mount a challenge because he has little to lose anyway. These aren't elves we're talking about, the candidates don't have 100 or more election cycles to make their attempt, you can hope for 5-6 attempts at best. If Trump eats one and then another two when GOP has no chance at winning, that's half your life chances worth gone with the wind through no fault but inaction on your part.
McHrozni