Thing is though, even if they can find another warm body that technically, if we squint sideways hard enough, qualifies for the post: are they realistically any more marketable than Biden? I mean, let's look past the fact that the LA Times leans left, and thus is going to fluff the Democratic candidates up; don't you think the fact that THIS early in the game the DNC has declared there'll be no nominational debates indicate pretty clearly that the fix is already in, and if not the rivals will be told to fold early so as to not divide the party? No disrespect, I agree 110% on your general thrust, but at this point I think it's pretty clear that word's gone out that Biden's a lock.

I say this as someone who used to vote Democrat until 2016, and while the Democratic party's been dead to me for the last 5-6 years, still hopes that eventually they purge the old blood, burn the corpse, and let something newer and nobler take its pace.

I mean, let's just go through the list of what this left-leaning outlet thinks their favored sons and daughters are:

Moore and Shapiro: unknowns outside their state; will take years at best to build up a body of policies and results to build a reputation on that will give them the cache. Same as how DeSantis IMHO still needs a couple years to build his portfolio up, and he's being premature now. Maybe they'll work out, but not this cycle... assuming there's nothing in their past that'll ruin them, or they don't get caught up in a scandal.

Gretchen Whitmer: Call me crazy, but I think conspiring with the Feds on a kidnapping plot where only one of the kidnappers wasn't a Fed or an informant, in order to make herself seem like a victim to pump her numbers... not the kind of person who should be President. Also, she was one of the worst tyrants during the COVID years... and a complete hypocrite on her own lockdown policies.

Roy Cooper: Seems like a comparatively decent guy on a casual scan, although I don't know much about him; he does seem hamstrung by the fact that he seems to tow the party line on a number of the more unpleasant platform positions of the mainline Democratic party, even declaring a state of emergency over the school choice issue. If he were to raise higher than Governor, he'd have to grow a spine to stand against that and reform the party, and the DNC would make sure any spine he grew would meet the business end of a crowbar. He'd be like Bernie Sanders: warm and affectionate like a grampa, but weak politically and easily broken to the interests of the higher players.

Pritzker and Murphy: Elitists who were born with a gold spoon in their mouths, have no understanding of the common man's struggles, and would have no problem enacting the worst of the Elite globalist agenda, because to them voting is an inconvenience they tolerate because us 'peasants' haven't yet been properly brought to heel. What's not bolted down they'll steal; everything else they'll get in the form of bribes.

Beshear: A very blue person in a very red state who JUST squeaked by in the polls; probably more on the name recognition of his father who'd been governor before him. So far, the track record of his policies make him just another carbon-copy Democrat who pretends to be conservative because he's in a red state, but will show their true colors on the national stage.

Gavin Newsom: Do I really need to point out how badly California's doing right now? He's certainly tanned and coifed enough to look Presidential, and I'm sure Aunt Pelosi will put in a good word, but I'd really rather not have to avoid shit, needles, and homeless encampments during my daily walks.

There's more down the list, but even the article puts them at the bottom of the barrel for good reason: people like Klobuchar, Booker, and Buttigieg stand no chance for the same reason they stood no chance the last time: everyone sees them for what they are, and what they are is nothing to vote for.

As I said, little wonder they're going to see if they can pump Mr. Magoo full of enough adrenochrome, pray to Moloch, and offer up some child sacrifices to make sure he makes it to 86; which is statistically impossible given his age, as well as his dreadful health both physically and mentally.