With Barack Obama on the campaign trail and the pivotal endorsement of Jim Clyburn, Biden, like every other Democratic presidential nominee since Michael Dukakis, won his nomination with the overwhelming majority of black support and continues to seem strong among the vital demographic for the general election. Biden’s clearest path to the Oval Office likely resides through the supposed blue wall that fell with Hillary Clinton’s bid, and that’s where Klobuchar could prove significantly more beneficial to Biden’s campaign than her competitors.

Sen. Kamala Harris may be the rising star of California, but does her instinctive authoritarianism regarding everything from religious liberty to nonviolent drug offenders seem like a winning issue among the suburban women who gave Democrats the House in 2018? Seems unlikely. What about Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the trainwreck of a Michigan governor who failed to pass a semblance of the state budget she ran upon, presided over a coronavirus slaughter rate twice as egregious as that of Washington, D.C., and also may be the most whiny person in politics today? Not quite a safe bet. And then there’s Stacey Abrams, the person who’s never won a statewide election but still insists that she was robbed of the Georgia governorship, rendering her the sorest loser in the national spotlight? Hard pass.