Crowded fields can be exciting, but they lead to crack-ups and deadly miscues. We’ve already had the latter with Elizabeth Warren’s DNA test-turned-Texas Bar card implosion. She committed identity politics’ unpardonable sin: cultural appropriation. Then Amy “The Impaler” Klobuchar emerged from a blizzard of oppo research and snow, showing her grit but also a knack for awful event planning. Kamala D. Harris pitched to the stoner and rapper constituencies in an interview you know she’d like to do over. Now mix in Cory Booker’s blast at meat eaters and his gaffe with the clerk-less Neomi Rao, and of course, Howard Schultz’s reception a la Ancient Booer: “Boo! Boo! Rubbish! Filth! Slime!"

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Uniting many candidates is the Green New Deal, with its cows-as-public-enemy-No.-1 and ground-all-planes rhetoric. Democrats are hurtling over the left-wing cliff, and so many bounced off cement this week that Colorado’s Sen. Michael Bennet, who’s about as ferocious as Ohio’s Sen. Rob Portman (R), edged closer to the smoldering ruins of the first stretch of the campaign.

Far from the spectacular series of pile-ups on the Democratic track, President Trump is just where he was last month, last year and last election. “Not there” isn’t a bad place to be.

But who’s that revving his engine? Joe Biden is older but invulnerable to new gaffes; he’s collected them all over his decades circling the track. Joining him in the warmup are the reliably left-wing (and thus immune to caricature) Bernie Sanders and, yes, Michael Bloomberg and his billions. The old guys suddenly look a lot better, with their experience and fundraising prowess. It must be because enough Democrats want to win this thing.

The Ranking

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Position Position Challenger Change Over Last Ranking 1. 1. Kamala D. Harris — 2. 2. Amy Klobuchar — 3. 3. Joe Biden — 4. 4. Elizabeth Warren UP 2 5. 5. Sherrod Brown DOWN 1 6. 6. Beto O’Rourke UP 1 7. 7. Cory Booker DOWN 2 8. 8. Bernie Sanders — 9. 9. Michael Bloomberg UP 1 10. 10. Kirsten Gillibrand DOWN 1 11. 11. Michael Bennet ADDS TO RANKING 12. 12. Oprah Winfrey UP 1 13. 13. John Hickenlooper DOWN 1 14. 14. Julián Castro — 15. 15. Larry Hogan ADDS TO RANKING

Falls off ranking: Howard Schultz, Stacey Abrams

Also receiving votes: Schultz, Abrams, Pete Buttigieg, Nikki M. Haley, Mitch Landrieu

Don’t forget to click on the yellow highlighted text above to expand the Ranking Committee’s annotations. Agree? Disagree? Share your thoughts in the comments. We’ll see you for the next ranking. Until then, enjoy the candidates’ best similarity to NASCAR: They keep turning left.