"The sheer volume of noncompetitive competitors is a distraction that Democrats can ill afford, given the enormity of the disaster at hand."

"Nothing, absolutely nothing, is more important than getting that mean-spirited, embarrassingly gauche, wishy-washy blowhard out of the White House. All of the Democratic fuming about staging a political revolution, shaking up the power structure, fighting the fossil fuel industry, taking down Wall Street, busting noses of the corporate elite, launching ground assaults on power and wealth-transforming the country — all that should be given over to building a well-planned and well-staffed presidential campaign apparatus that can support the candidate best able to do something about what’s happening now.... This is no time for Democrats to humor the ambition of newbies seeking to enter the big time or to pamper grizzled veterans out for a last hurrah... Democrats simply don’t have the luxury of engaging in months of intramural infighting that ends up trashing those most electable against Trump. The last thing they need is a battered nominee limping into the general election...."

Writes Colbert I. King in "All these wannabe Democratic nominees are wasting everybody’s time" (WaPo).

That's one very obvious position, but who's the pampered "grizzled veteran"? Isn't it Biden, and isn't he also the one who's supposed to be the closest to a sure thing that everyone else can get behind? And how can Trump-haters really believe that the blandest choice is really best?

King lists the ones he thinks are the extras who need to get out of the way: Bill de Blasio, John Delaney, Julián Castro, Tulsi Gabbard, Jay Inslee, Tim Ryan, Michael F. Bennet, Kirsten Gillibrand, John Hickenlooper, Eric Swalwell, Marianne Williamson, Andrew Yang. Why isn't Buttigieg on that loser list? Why isn't Klobuchar? And why is Hickenlooper there? He could emerge as the serious, stable alternative to Trump that everyone could get behind.

Even if Trump opponents agree that what's crucially important is to beat Trump, plenty of them will say that a more excitingly progressive campaign is the better bet. Look at how Trump himself won (and look back to how Obama won). You have to look at what Americans have become and try to figure out what will be moving us 16 months from now. It's not easy, and it will take some magic.

I'm using the word "magic" to evoke President Trump, who recently asked about Biden, "Where's the magic?"