Third, the campaign could be lost by the time a new nominee is selected. Trump would have the national stage effectively to himself, and even if that could be a double-edged sword for Republicans, the Democrats would get buried alive in fundraising and TV advertising in the interim. Then, they’d need to roll out and introduce their new ticket — and even with a likely Greek chorus of praise from the political press, that would hamper the necessary work of making this an election about Trump.

Fourth, the convention itself would be a nightmare, for reasons particular to this moment in Democratic Party politics. There is already mounting concern that, with the war in Gaza still ongoing, campuses mostly still out of session in the third week of August, and Chicago now run by a mayor who sides with the radicals, the city will be overrun with the worst menagerie of left-wing protesters, especially pro-Hamas protesters and the sorts of climate zealots who attack artwork and spray-paint Stonehenge. It already threatens to be 1968 on steroids. Now, imagine that these people are told that there is a particular building where the next potential commander in chief is being chosen. What would happen outside in the streets would make January 6 look like a New England town meeting by comparison.