An unimpressive Democratic bench

Last month, the Washington Post served up its quarterly rankings of potential 2024 Democratic presidential nominees. The top ten were:

1. Joe Biden

2. Pete Buttigieg

3. Kamala Harris

4. Elizabeth Warren

5. Amy Klobuchar

6. Roy Cooper

7. Sherrod Brown

8. Cory Booker

9. Gavin Newsom

10. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The Post had excluded Biden from its previous list on the theory that there would be “a true primary only if he didn’t run.” Given recent developments, however, the Post now says it needs “to consider the possibility that, if [Biden] does run, he won’t have the field to himself — and that he might not be the most likely nominee.”

That’s a noteworthy call by the Post. A sound one, too.

It’s also noteworthy to see a cabinet member listed ahead of the vice president. This is especially true because (1) Kamala Harris had widely been touted as the heir apparent to Biden and (2) Pete Buttigieg is so undistinguished.

Buttigieg was the mayor of a small city. As a backwater cabinet member, he has presided over the supply chain crisis, at the height of which he took paternity leave.

We’re not talking about a Hillary Clinton or a Mike Pompeo here.

Of the eight Democrats behind Biden and Buttigieg, four — Harris, Warren, Klobuchar, and Booker — ran for president in 2020 and failed to gain serious traction. Two — Newsom and Cooper — are governors. The former presides over a wreck of state whose population is shrinking. The latter lacks national recognition, at least right now.

Of the other two on the list, one is among the most left-wing members of the Senate (Brown). The other is arguably the most left-wing member of House (Ocasio-Cortez) and will barely be age-eligible to serve as president in 2025. America isn’t lurching to the left these days.

I'm trying to be as objective as I can. This is not much of a bench.

What about the Republican side? In February, the Washington Post came up with this list:

1. Donald Trump

2. Ron DeSantis

3. Nikki Haley

4. Mike Pence

5. Donald Trump Jr.

6. Tim Scott

7. Ted Cruz

8. Glenn Youngkin

9. Chris Sununu

10. Mike Pompeo

At the top of the list sits a former president who, say what you will about him, won more than 74 million votes in 2020. He leads the incumbent president in the polls.

Right behind him comes the popular governor of a key swing state. Then comes a popular former governor who also served, with considerably visibility, as the U.S ambassador to the UN.

The former U.S. vice president can only grab fourth place. This, despite his additional credentials as a successful governor and leading member of the U.S. House.

Mike Pompeo, the former CIA Director and Secretary of State, barely makes the Post’s list. Pompeo, by the way, was first in his class at West Point and graduated from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the law review.

Two prominent GOP Senators, Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, aren’t in the Post’s top ten. Rubio didn’t set the world on fire when he ran for president in 2016, but he made a better fist of it than Harris and Booker did four years later and performed about as well as Warren and Klobuchar. Remember, too, that Rubio was only 45 when he ran. Warren was 70. Klobuchar was 55.

Cotton, in his seven years as Senator, has made at least as much of an impression — more of one I say — as Klobuchar and Brown have managed to make in considerably longer stints. And he’s smarter than either of them.

The 2024 election probably won’t be decided by which party has the deeper bench. Only one candidate from each side will run in the general election (unless Trump seeks the nomination, fails to win it, and runs anyway).

Furthermore, even a weak candidate can be elected president if the circumstances are right. Joe Biden is Exhibit A.

Even so, I think Republicans can take some encouragement if, as I hope I’ve shown, the GOP bench is much stronger than that of the Democrats.