Janet Napolitano for VP?

That requirement substantially shortens the list. Warren’s fire-breathing persona rubs against Biden’s promise of bipartisanship. Harris, Whitmer, and Abrams lack seasoning. Harris has not yet completed her first term in the U.S. Senate, Whitmer is still in her second year as governor of Michigan, and Abrams has never served in federal or statewide office. Klobuchar, now in her third Senate term, is no greenhorn, and she offers gravitas and bipartisan chops. In Minnesota, she has shown she can attract moderate and Republican voters, and in the 2020 primaries, she did better than respectably. On paper, that makes her a good fit. But she has not held an executive office, and the public prefers governors to senators. (Only three sitting senators have been elected president, versus nine sitting governors.) And she hails from Minnesota, a state Biden is likely to win anyway.

The ideal résumé, then, would be a former governor with gravitas and federal experience, a track record of attracting moderate and Republican voters, and appeal in a key battleground state. Not too old or young—say, in her early 60s. All that, plus a good relationship with Joe Biden. Someone, that is, like Janet Napolitano…

Napolitano would be solidly in the comfort category for Biden: someone who mirrors his own strengths, whom he is comfortable with, whom he and the public trust to take over. The urban left and the identity-politics crowd would be disappointed. But they are not the constituency the Democrats need most this year, and the prospect of winning the White House and possibly the Senate would bring many of them around.