Every day I wake up and ask myself why there isn’t a much larger groundswell of Democratic and independent voter support for Mayor Pete. He’s so obviously the best and the brightest, the most mature, the most gifted, the most eloquent, the best educated, most sensible and practical-minded candidate among the pack. And among the most principled.

JFK, RFK, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama…Mayor Pete has the same natural charisma, the same aura of destiny. Yes, Beto O’Rourke had that mojo earlier this year, but he somehow hand-gestured, Vanity Fair-ed, dentist-video’ed, table-topped and apologized his way out of that. Maybe he’ll find his way back but right now and for the foreseeable future Mayor Pete is unquestionably “the guy.”

Did anyone really care about JFK’s private sexual life? Or Bill Clinton‘s? Or, God forbid, Donald Trump‘s? In my mind Mayor Pete is the only guy…the only Democratic candidate about whom the only conceivable response is “yes, of course!…please!”

And he’s totally right about Avuncular Joe, who is nothing if not an old-guard symbol and defender of the system…of the moderately liberal, business-as-usual way of operating…who is nothing if not more of the same…a Washington, D.C. insider who believes that his Republican pallies will regain their sanity and change their tune if he beats Trump…who wants to adopt a middle-ground approach to climate change.

Tattoo this phrase on your brain: “The riskiest thing we could do is try too hard to play it safe.”

This may sound harsh, but in my mind the idea of Trump being re-elected is only slightly more depressing than the idea of Biden replacing him.