So ... who wants to hitch their wagons to the Kamala Harris star? Harris may not yet have clinched the Democrat presidential nomination -- and she certainly didn't win a democratic nomination, to say the least. As I wrote earlier, Harris largely defaulted into position when others with presidential ambitions decided to avoid testing those out in this moment of Democrat-created chaos and duplicity.

Still, default or no, Democrats now need a running mate on the ticket. And that leaves a lot of questions as to who does want to inject themselves into the current quagmire facing the party. The New York Times has a list of potential choices for Harris, which notably leaves off two of the most ambitious figures in the party:

The list of possibilities is fairly well known and includes Democrats widely seen as possible presidential candidates in 2028 or even this year. Whether or not she faces any competition for the nomination, she is beginning to consider who would be her running mate in a race against the Republican ticket, Donald J. Trump and JD Vance. Democrats will convene in Chicago on Aug. 19 for their nominating convention.

Ms. Harris, 59, could be inclined to turn to someone from a battleground state. She is also likely to choose a male running mate, Democrats said, to give the ticket balance. But nothing is certain.

Heck, even Harris' nomination isn't certain. Now that she's out of the White House bubble and campaigning on her own, Harris has to prove that she can keep from embarrassing herself like she did in 2019. If Harris makes a major error or has a meltdown on camera, the "open process" demand will return with a vengeance. 

But what is certain is that Harris has to at least nominate a running mate. The DNC wants to hold its nomination votes prior to the convention to prevent floor fights from breaking out. That means that they need a choice before the end of next week, and that it's someone who can fill her skill gaps and hold a debate with J.D. Vance. 

And notably absent from this list are the two top names floated in the Dump Biden effort: Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom. (They're on CNN's short list, but not because they're making themselves available for it.) Whitmer explicitly declined consideration yesterday while accepting co-chair status to Harris' campaign. Why are their two top "bench" stars out of the running? Both of them want to run for president at a later date, and the last thing they want is to have the stink of a party revolt on them when they do. Not to mention the stink of a very likely Kamala Harris loss to Donald Trump. 

Plus: running mates and sitting VPs tend to do poorly in future presidential elections. In the last century, only three former VPs who didn't ascend to the presidency through death of the incumbent won a presidential election: Biden, George H. W. Bush and Richard Nixon, and Nixon had to try twice before succeeding. Before that, you have to go all the way back to Martin Van Buren. VPs Al Gore, Walter Mondale, Gerald Ford are the rule rather than the exception, and Harris is probably going to discover that in this cycle as well. 

So with that in mind, let's take a quick look at the supposed shortlisters:

• Governors: 
  • Andy Beshear seems the most likely of this bunch because he's been actively campaigning for it over the last 24 hours. He doesn't have much chance of running for the top spot in a party obsessed with identitarian politics, but this Kentucky nepo baby could fit the bill as counterprogramming against Vance. (Or so Democrats will think.) 
  • Josh Shapiro could help Harris carry Pennsylvania and at least seems open to the idea. But Shapiro could run on his own in 2028 and doesn't need to get saddled with the baggage of the Dump Biden outcome. 
  • J.B. Pritzker doesn't have anything to offer except his One Percenter wealth, and Roy Cooper isn't in touch with anyone in the Democrat voter universe. 
  • Maryland's Wes Moore only just started his first term in Maryland, but he might make a good fit with the progressive Left.
  • Tim Walz? Ha! The governor who let Minneapolis burn?
• DC Insiders:
  • Senator Mark Kelly might make a good low-key pick for Harris. He'll never overshadow her, and he might pull Arizona back into the Dem column ... except that voters don't really make choices based on running mates.
  • Pete Buttigieg is someone that Democrats keep believing has a future in their presidential politics, for some reason. The problem with picking a Biden official is that the ticket will have to necessarily distance itself from Biden's less popular policies and outcomes. 
  • Gina Raimondo has the same problem. As Commerce Secretary, Raimondo would amplify the ticket's responsibility for the economic pain inflicted on consumers during three years of avoidably high inflation. 

The two that make the most sense are Beshear and Kelly, with Moore as a wild card depending on the mood among delegates. Beshear and Kelly would signal a move to the center, while Moore would indicate a firm resolve to turn the party leftward. Shapiro would be a real dark horse, especially considering the differences between Harris and Shapiro on Israel and Hamas and the riots on campuses for most of the past year. Shapiro has better things to do that act as cover for a harder line on Israel that Harris will bring to the office. 

We won't get an answer today, but an answer will need to come soon. Harris had better hope that Eric Holder can complete the vetting process quickly and competently. And yes, it's that Eric Holder, so the Obama clique will likely determine who gets added to the ticket. I'm sure that's just a coincidence.