I suppose it’s a pretty safe political rule of thumb that you might want to skip debating your opponents if you are comfortably ahead in the polls.

Debates help underdogs who crave exposure and want a clear shot at whoever is ahead.

That wisdom has certainly not been lost on Donald Trump, who has galloped so far ahead of the rest of the pack in the Republican presidential contest that he is now teasing a suggestion that he hasn’t decided yet whether he’ll compete in the first primary debate, in August.

Candidates who so far haven’t found much voice to challenge or criticize Trump have seized on the notion that his skipping the debates would be unforgivable, apparently worse than allegations that he made hush payments to a porn star, stole classified records and incited an insurrection.

“I think he should show up and make his case and answer questions like the rest of us,” huffed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in one of his first direct Trump criticisms.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has been the most critical among all the Trump challengers, just flat out calls the former president a coward for suggesting he might not debate.

Christie’s taunts reminded me of Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s refusal to debate his opponent in a 2010 Democratic primary in the race for his now comfortable Senate seat.

In fact I still have on my desk the rubber chicken businessman Merrick Alpert, Blumenthal’s opponent, sent to the media when Blumenthal refused to debate him a second time, after generally choking in their first match.

“Chicken Dick” says a tag around the cute rubber chicken’s neck, which came with a note suggesting it was written by Blumenthal.

“Please help me hide. Don’t make me debate again,” said the note from Chicken Dick.

In the end, Blumenthal clearly made the right calculation, cruising to the party nomination and his Senate seat.

It doesn’t look like Trump, even with some more indictments under his belt, will have much trouble winning the nomination, a sad commentary on the state of the Republican Party.

And surely, by conventional political wisdom, he’d be wise to skip the primary debates. He’s even threatening to stage a competing event on another network on the same night his rivals squabble among themselves.

I wouldn’t bet on that, though.

After all, Trump likes to defy convention.

And, really, it’s hard to imagine the ego-driven showman forsaking the spotlight that would offer him such an opportunity to preen, belittle and insult, a siren call for the would-be dictator who is promising to unravel our heritage of democracy.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com