We’re already past it being just “a few fall guys”.
No, we are not. Anybody that isn’t Trump is a “fall guy”…including his own family.
Trump will be the GOP candidate until/unless the GOP decides that Trump will certainly lose the general election and someone else has a better chance of winning. Unless something explosive comes out of the Mueller report (which I doubt) then Trump will have the best chance of winning among current Republican candidates.
Not even that. If he’s still the President (not at all a safe assumption), then he’ll be the nominee. They have no better idea.
There are many, many better candidates than Trump - Nikki Haley seems to be pre-eminent - but no one will stand against him. If there’s even a sniff of impeachment Trump will be persuaded to resign for ‘medical reasons’ and PEnce will take over. Pence / Haley would be a powerful combination next year - Haley / Pence even more so.
Trump will dismiss anyone who tries to persuade him to resign, as long as he thinks there are any more deals to be made.
Truman, arguably. He served more than half of the 1944-48 term after FDR died, was elected outright in 1948, and he was taken out in the primaries of 1952 with his popularity at a low point, mostly because of Korea and MacArthur.
The term limit rules didn’t apply to him because he was president when they were ratified.
This. It’s about getting elected. The worth of a candidate, policies that improve people’s lives, principle, honesty, integrity-- all crap. GETTING ELECTED. That’s what matters. If that means running the CFSG, the so be it. And if includes suppressing votes, tampering with ballots, redrawing voting districts, failing to count absentee ballots that are likely to be Democratic, fixing it so legitimately registered (Democratic) voters can’t vote-- all of these things have been done and will continue to be done.
Ulysses S. Grant was a candidate for the 1880 Republican nomination, which would have given him a (nonconsecutive) third term if he had won the nomination and the election. As for the “discouraged by party leaders” part, some of them favored him and some of them didn’t (partly because of the no-third-term tradition, partly because they simply preferred Blaine or Sherman*) with not enough of the former to prevail.
*James Garfield eventually got the nomination as a dark-horse compromise candidate chosen to break the deadlock between the main contenders.
I’m going with this one, and have been continuously stunned since the 2016 election.
I for the life of me cannot understand how the GOP has just plain fallen to their knees at Trumps feet and seem to worship him. Lindsey Graham is the absolute best example of this. I swear, he stops by the White House every morning to lick Trump’s boots clean.
I think it depends on the economy, and also, the timing. But Trump already has by some estimates a record pre-convention campaign donation haul. I don’t think any candidate contemplating a primary challenge would contest him expecting to win; it would be strictly a matter of principle.
Keep your eye on Larry Hogan, Governor of Maryland.
Yeah, no. Nothing and no one could convince Trump to resign. The whole “Even if Trump gets elected, he’ll decide it’s too hard, then resign” claims 2 years ago were laughable. In his mind, he’s never failed at anything, and resigning would be the most public and blatant admission of failure possible.
The only way Trump doesn’t run is if he understands that he stands a high chance of defeat (better to leave on his own terms than to suffer an actual loss,) or he is too fatigued to go on (he’s no spring chicken and the presidency is a grueling job.)
He still might run, but in a different sense of the word…
<snapping fingers and pointing at jasg…>
Good one. 
That, and the longer he remains President, the longer he can (probably) stay out of prison.
You’re assuming he puts any effort into actually carrying out his duties.
I hope you’re correct.
I also think that should Trump survive to stand for election in 2020, he will be trounced by a historic margin. He caught lightning in a bottle once. It won’t happen again, and he and his family and cronies have too much baggage for him to get elected again.