It could be.
“Ha ha, the Dems should have known not to put Hillary up, with all her baggage”
Long way to November 2016. No one has a lock on it, either side.
I don’t think they will get one of those as nominee though, so that itch will remain unscratched.
The thing is, if Trump or Cruz gets the nomination, but actually want to win instead of running to make some political point, then either would start moving back to the center. Which of course would lead to cries of betrayal from the True Believers, and the cycle will repeat again because they “weren’t conservative enough”.
The names that comes to mind as having campaigns that were noted for … er … “ideological pureness” are Barry Goldwater and Strom Thurmond. They have a few things in common but mainly crushing defeat.
Cruz might be ok with that (I doubt it) but Trump certainly wouldn’t.
“Trump’s problem is that he wasn’t a REAL conservative, and he tried too hard to be politically correct.”
Benghazi! emails! Hillarycare! you know, the same stuff they’ll be saying in 2020.
“Huh. President Kardashian. Never saw that coming.”
Finally, the moment the McCain campaign has been waiting for!
I maybe could live with Robert Kardashian – is he still alive?
He’s dining with Elvis.
Finally, a Republican ticket I can vote for!
Almost perfect! Except instead of “right woman for the job” he’d say “she’s terrific!”. He’d also have to work in something about how “Republicans are losers” and he got out because he totally doesn’t work with losers, and Jeb or whoever the nominee was “… is an idiot. He’s stupid. He doesn’t know the first thing about presidenting! He came to me, he begged me to support him, and I told him to get out. And when Hillary is afflicted with those womanly things, Bill can take over. He’s right there, and he already knows how to do the job. It’s terrific!”
“We would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids and their lousy dog!”
“I can’t believe the country elected Bernie Sanders president!”
(Hey, a man can dream.)
Heh. You channeled Trump perfectly there. 
Hot damn! It’s all ours. Put up a sign at the White House; “Fags, whiners and niggers not welcome.”
Obviously I’m not hoping for this, but you optimists should know there’s hard work ahead. Betfair has the 2017 White House at 59-41 right now; Iowa Prediction about the same. With demographics moving quickly against them, the GOP knows this is its last big chance. Billions will be spent deluding the American voter. Expect unconscionable dirty tricks.
Or more likely: “Sanders. What were those Democrats smoking? [Insert evil laugh here.] Hello Supreme Court!”
Edited to add - no he won’t get the nomination. We mostly gave up smoking that stuff long ago.
Come on, get real. What kind of crazy political party would throw away a presidential election by letting its extremist fringe pick the nominee?
Apparently not the Republicans, as fhey generally pick the establishment guy. Let’s see… Romney, McCain, Bush, Dole, Bush… You have to back to Reagan before you can find a nominee the Republican ‘base’ was happy with.
The Democrat base on the other hand got Obama and Dukakis. I think it’s fair to say that Gore was an establishment candidate and so was Mondale and Kerry. So at least you got two at-bats and one double.
Karl Rove: “No, Ohio should not be decided for the Democrat. I have proof that Ohio is going Republican.”
“It feels good to win.”