There were many amusing things about the 2016 election season but one of my favorites was looking at the differences in the Democratic and Republican field of candidates in late 2015. The Democrats, who will tell you all day about how the Republican Party is just made up of a bunch of old, white dudes had a handul of old, white dudes playing presidential candidate so the old, white chick they knew they were going to run before one primary vote had been cast looked like she had competition.

The Republicans on the other hand had a dozen and a half candidates that came from every possible background. From Bobby Jindal and Marco Rubio to Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson, the field was ethnically, gender, and socio-economically and educationally diverse. Sure, Republican still ended up with an old, white guy running against the Democrats coronated candidate, but it was a stark example of how deep the Republican field was.

Fast forward to 2017 and Democrats are already looking around for who would make a good challenger to Donald Trump in 2020. They know they can’t run Hillary Clinton again — although that hasn’t stopped some of the truly delusional from floating the idea –so who gets Democrats and the media whispering? What new, fresh face made a trip to the early primary state of New Hampshire to give a speech this week and set off excited whispers of “will he?”

Joe. Biden.

You know, the old, white guy who will be almost 78-years-old and has been in Washington D.C. since the Watergate years. What a deep bench.

Look, Democrats, we get it. You realize you really screwed up by not doing more to get someone at least halfway likable to the American public on your ticket.

At least Biden seems to have done more reflecting on why Democrats have lost both houses of Congress and the White House than much of the Democratic leadership seems to be doing. But Biden also hit an old refrain as being the reason why Democratic voters either stayed home or voted Republican in 2016: Americans are filled with hopelessness and Democrats didn’t tell them enough about how hopeless they are, or something.

“”I’m absolutely positive [voters] wanted to be with us. But we have to prove again we understand that hopelessness,” Biden said on Sunday.

So, hope and change is the well the Democrats think they need to suck dry. We’ll see how that tired mantra plays out in 2020. I’ve always thought Republicans were the ones who couldn’t help but screw things up for themselves, but Democrats are doing everything in their power to make sure Republicans — even as hapless as they are at times — keep getting elected.

Keep it up, guys.