Shesh, talking about the 2020 bench at this point is stupid.
Back in 2004 Obama was already considered a rising star, but very few expected he'd run as soon as 2008. Well, he ended up President.
Back in 2015 Republicans appeared to have a strong bench on the paper with Trump being just a flavor of the month, who will soon "pass his peak". He's President-elect now.
Talking about whether the bench is "strong" or "weak" is stupid. But taking potential candidates' early hints about whether they're interested in running or not isn't stupid, IMHO. The people who are already dropping hints about wanting to run for president 3-4 years in advance do tend to run more often than those who don't. E.g., Christie, Rubio, Pawlenty, Romney, McCain, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, etc. (I could make a much longer list if I wanted to) were all dropping hints of future presidential ambitions like crazy at least 4 years before their respective campaigns took place.
Sure, there are also
other candidates who don't give very much notice of their intentions. But it's not too early to start piecing together who some of the likely players might be. The stealth campaign has been underway at least since the conventions, when several potential candidates (e.g., on the Dem. side, Booker, Klobuchar, O'Malley, the Castros) met with the early primary state delegations.
