Pelosi is 76. Her second-in-command, Maryland’s Steny Hoyer, is 77. Jim Clyburn, the 3rd ranking House Democrat, is 76. Many of the younger members who were seen as potential party leaders have moved on or up. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) is in the Senate. (More on him below.) New York Rep. Steve Israel retired. Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is in no position to make a run at leadership after her disastrous tenure as chair of the Democratic National Committee…

Cory Booker (N.J.) is widely seen as a candidate with national ambitions although the campaign he ran to get to the Senate was shaky (at best) and led to some whispering about whether he is even close to ready for what comes next. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) are ambitious for higher office but, at the moment, aren’t terribly well known outside of their home states. (That, of course, can change if either one of them decided to change it.) California Sen.-elect Kamala Harris is widely seen as a future national candidate but hasn’t even been sworn into the Senate yet. Rep. Keith Ellison’s (Minn.) candidacy for DNC Chair could elevate a young, African American as one of President Trump’s main foils.

That is to say that there are some Democrats who could eventually fill the leadership vacuum created by Clinton’s implosion. But, none of them are an obvious fit today — which is when the party needs them. And that’s a problem.