‘3 Musketeers’ or ‘3 Stooges’? Republicans Running Against Trump May Fall in Between

3 Musketeers. IMHO.

Trump is self-defeating, self-impeaching. He's a fluke, a fake, and a fraud, supported by the cream of America's corruption. The American people will fire him next Nov 3.

My personal nightmare is this. Joe Biden gets the Democratic nomination. Then Donald Trump, for reasons of health, Impeachment (less likely) or losing in primaries (least likely) is not the candidate. Then Biden has to run against Weld, who is smarter, more articulate, and socially liberal (well...libertarian) and a newly reconstituted Republican, giving the GOP a point around which to rally. I'd love to see Weld be the nominee, but the Democrats need Warren, his only intellectual equal, to run against him.

I certainly hope that Joe Walsh can continue to take courageous stances like he did on arming children, as he did so well on "Who is America?" What a visionary!

Being a Nerd and a Political Junkie, I remember Mark Sanford’s scandalous extra marital affair when he was the Governor of South Carolina. As the Republican governor of Massachusetts, William Weld was a passionate environmentalist. He signed the “River Protection Act” to clean up the Charles River. In 1996, he declared that the Charles River was finally free of raw sewage and in order to demonstrate that - he jumped into the river and swam - fully clothed in a suit. I don’t know much about Joe Walsh. Notwithstanding Trump’s unpopularity, I don’t think that these three challengers have any chance of winning the nomination against Trump - so as we say in New York “Fugetaboutit” !

First off, significantly increasing the deficit is quite wayward from Republican core values. Additionally , success of Trump's tariff war seems iffy, with USA farmers most likely facing a long road to recovery from China's pacts with newly found crop providers, e.g. Brazil. Trump's isolation agenda flies in the face of historical Republican free market values. Let's not even get into human rights issues at border detention. Those are just a few examples of Trump's decimation of Republican values that require party introspection. Do Republicans really want 4 more years of a man who barely represents their core values? I believe Trump is underwater, with a landslide defeat upcoming. If the Republican party can get their heads out of the sand, they will move to abandon Trump as their leader. Allowing challengers is a start.

The three musketeers won, repeatedly, in the original book and throughout several long sequels. The three stooges were highly professional at their work, and (despite Hollywood's reputation at the time) apparently moral in their home lives. So definitely as a group the candidates are neither one nor the other. I wish them well. Any attack on Trump within the party that is his source of power is appreciated. But I fear they will end up more like Three Blind Mice, with Trump playing the part of the Farmer's Wife.

No chance at all if half the states cancel the GOP primaries! I would love to see Trump debate them. What are they afraid of?

This headline is pretty demeaning to these candidates, and I am a Democrat. But Kudos to Sanford; a Republican acknowledging that Trump could be a danger is to be admired. Most of us know this, except for those who are blindly following this POTUS who doesn’t resemble any Republican President I remember.

Do non-Trump people have a realistic chance of replacing Trump in the party of Trump? No.

Oh I love this. This is the highest form of experimental humor.

I am 100% confident the Trumpet ill not be on the ballot. There are at least 2 others who could easily beat him in the primaries---not saying which, but the threat to the Trumpet is so real, I'm beginning to breathe more easily and expect our country to resuscitate from the stranglehold the Trumpet has had on America. No worries here. The Trumpet did himself in, and will not be favorably remembered in the annals of history. Throw 'im out...........

They get a yawn and a shrug from me, too. Anybody paying attention in the first year of Trump's presidency should know that it's his party now and any 'moderate' Republican is politically homeless. You can tell by the way these three can't get on Fox and have to make op-eds in the Washington Post of all places. In a way it has been funny and cringe-worthy, though not as enjoyable as The Three Stooges actually are. Disaffected Republicans have done nothing for three years but whinge at Democrats while retaining their self-righteous assurance that progressivism is the real threat to America.

The RNC should either open the FIELD or change its name to the TNC.

Why do I get the feeling that these people would be walking in lock step with Trump if they didn’t see an opportunity for themselves.

As publisher of “Prez Power 100” Leaderboard, I follow the daily activity of each of the currently active presidential campaigns to better understand the cause of weekly shifts in their social media analytics. Based on my ongoing study of the three Republican campaigns, a more fitting title for the article would be “‘3 Musketeers’ or ‘3 WISE MEN’? Republicans Running Against Trump May Fall in Between.” However, in light of his school-boy narcissism perhaps any epithet hurled by Trump should be considered an appellation of distinction because he only insults those who rankle his self-esteem.

What an insulting headline. Three Stooges? Weld was an articulate and highly accomplished Governor of Mass. Thanks for doing Trump's work for him.

None of these candidates has a chance against Trump unless they are planning on making explicitly racist statements, repeatedly. That is what the Republican base demands. Listening to these Republican "strategists" performing linguistic gymnastics tying themselves into logical knots trying to explain the Trump phenomenon any other way is laughable.

If Trump is impeached or resigns, one of these 3 will be the GOP 2020 nominee for president. Recent news possibly implicating Trump in treason could finally wake up Congressional GOPers to get rid of Trump.

It i true that many repubs will never ever vote for a Dem. They would choose a corrupt incompetent Trump over any Dem. Adding a "R" to the names of opponents will allow some wiggle room. However the antiabortion, low taxes, less regulations and anti immigrants, gays , liberals etc. must be added to their policies. Will they be able to raise the $$ needed? The Trump base will never change but they are probably less then 25% of total eligible voters.

Three with ethics, morals, ideas, courage. The rest of ‘republicans’ un-American cowards who will bankrupt everything that made this country great.

Re: "...Mark Sanford, the former Republican governor of South Carolina who once brought squealing pigs into the State Capitol to make a point about pork barrel spending, is running against President Trump because of his failure to cut government waste..." 'Just_Curious' Dept.: Did, ('world, renown'), archaeologist, 'N, S.C. governor Sanford ever get proper 'scientific' credit for discovering the (previously, unknown...), Appalachian spur* leading into Columbia? *{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Mountains#/media/File:Appalachian_map.svg}

Trump can be beat. It's part of his mist to get everyone believing its in the bag. Remember Hillery. She had no where near the number of scandals associated with her name. If Trump in some way becomes guilty of a major slip in the eyes of the public his support will vanish.

“‘The thing about Trump that’s so central to his power is that he beat Hillary Clinton when he wasn’t supposed to,’ said Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist...” This inane pronouncement concerning Trump’s electoral victory in 2016 has taken on a life of its own. It has been put to use in quite a number of ways, none of which make any sense. —Trump - “The Democrats hatred of me isn’t about me. It’s about them losing an election Hillary was supposed to win.” —“The Democrats just can’t let go of their anger about Trump winning an election he was supposed to lose.” —Ms. Longwell’s quotation from this article. —Etc. I have heard dozens of variations on this theme during Trump’s reign of incompetence. The person speaking was nearly always a supporter or apologist for the president. None, as well as I remember ever answered the question, “BY WHOSE SUPPOSITION?” In truth, this tired line isn’t based on supposition, it’s actually an extension of facts such as. Trump is unfit for office. Trump is an ignorant, unbalanced fool. Trump should lose ANY election for ANY office for which he runs, because he’s a political nitwit. The conclusions that have been drawn from “Trump winning an election he was supposed to lose” are uniformly ridiculous. Please stop. I have never heard a liberal Democrat make a single statement about their reaction to Trump winning an election he was supposed to lose. Never.

There will be no primary in South Carolina. The emperor reigns supreme. The south will rise again.

So, if there are three stooges running against him, does he claim to be Shemp? He can't rise to that level, and he definitely lowered the standard. Perhaps the comparison is amiss. We have three musketeers running against a Keystone Cop.

Primary elections often include more contested races than just the presidential race; other national, state and local races may have more than one candidate from a party. How will these state parties that have canceled their primaries handle that? No primary challenges allowed, or hold a primary for all but the top contest (which is so partisan that it must be illegal)? Not allowing challengers is a move straight from the Russian playbook.

Ms Karni and Mr Martin, I must object to the way you are attempting to cover these challengers to Mr. Trump. While the other two are not so impressive, William Weld is a man of intellect, wisdom and above all character who entered in this race first and alone because the presence of a challenger to Mr Trump was needed. His fight may be long and uphill, but your discussion is shallow. To take on a huge challenge in the service of one's country can never be a 'fool's errand'. Mr Trump's support is certainly broad within his own party now, but it is also thin and very opportunistic; it could disappear quickly under the right circumstances. Please give some consideration to these challengers that is more respectful of the challenge they are embracing and not just echoing current party line. Thank you.

My Father-in-law and Mother-in-law voted for Trump because they were Republicans and lock-step Republicans always vote for the Republican candidate. They, of course, went to the polls together. Until his death last year in June, Dad would not comment on any of the disasters Trump was unleashing. Mom just hid and remained mute. Since Dad's death, she has often commented that Trump is unfit but she now claims she did not vote at all. We don't challenge her with what we know to be true. She is a good woman just as Dad was a good man whether old-fashioned party loyalists or not. There's no good in shaming her. Her conscience does that enough. I recommend to everyone that they take the high road and avoid shaming those who they know voted for Trump. Most of them are also good people who voted as they did for their own reasons. Some will also join the fight to depose Trump whether they back one of the Musketeers or back a Democrat. Either way, Trump loses support.

If they have the signatures and the fee to get on the ballot, a primary should be held. This is how America works. A candidate gets his/her moment in the voter's awareness and the voter votes for whoever the candidate is who comes closest to the voter's way of thinking. Cancelling primaries is un-American. Also aren't many primary elections combined with state and local elections. The polling places will be open for some election, but not the GOP primary.

The headline is an insult to Moe, Larry and Curly. They were professionals and top-notch at what they did.

A dog with a note in it's mouth would be a light-years better President than Trump. I won't vote for any of these three but even Walsh would be an improvement on Trump and that's really saying something because he's an awful human being.

I was reading an article about Moscow elections cancelled to prevent opposition candidates from challenging the sitting president. Little did I realize they were referring to Moscow, South Carolina.

Clever, if misleading catching headline. When radical GOP “conservatives” are challenging their Party’s leader because, he’s, well.... a Fascist, you know the Republican Party is in trouble. They understand that the GOP overplayed its hand. The question is why the press has given this movement a pass and neglected in-depth, straight reporting as the movement was gaining strength.

I don't understand the problem the authors of this article are trying to explain. The presence of 3 Republican candidates for President clearly gives those Republican voters who can't abide Trump the opportunity to cast a vote against him without abandoning their party. Whether there be 3 or more each candidate takes votes away from Trump. They need not nor should they come forward with either a private or public statement. A no brainer as compared to the problems 10 or more candidates have given the Democrats. The huge problem with this upcoming election is intervention by foreign powers or domestic terrorists....yes a US citizen, or group of citizens deliberately or not tampering, intervening in a Presidential election is an act of domestic terrorism and should be treated as such.

I dearly hope, for the sake of the U.S., that none of these candidates will ever consider running as a third-party candidate in 2020.