Let’s see how the political world reacts if the same happens in 2019 and 2020. What if the Democratic B-list panel has twice as many women on it as the A-list panel? You know that accusations of sexism and patriarchal dominion will fly fast and furious and will come to control the national conversation for a time…

As if that weren’t messy enough, let’s turn next to the early primaries and caucuses. If no one has truly broken out of the pack, the Democratic Party could find itself in mid-March 2020 with six or seven plausible candidates.

Since the delegates awarded by the Democratic primaries and caucuses aren’t winner-take-all, but are assigned on a proportional basis, a multiplicity of choices could make it impossible for any one candidate to get a real leg up on the others.

Here’s another wrinkle: According to current Democratic rules, no candidate wins delegates at the state level unless he or she wins 15 percent of the primary vote. There could be states in which no one wins 15 percent of the primary vote. What will happen then?