We can, and do, empathize. So you'll surely forgive us if this week we turn our attention away from how early it is in the season, and focus on a few people for whom it might actually be too late.
The trickle of declared presidential ambitions has become a flood. First, two anti-establishment tea party-ish freshman senators, Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), got into the race. Then, America lived through the anticlimax of the decade when Democrat Hillary Clinton released a brief announcement of her candidacy last week. Following that was the declaration of another freshman senator, Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). Pending announcements are in the wings from Republican neurosurgeon Ben Carson and and former Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland. Two other presumed Republican heavyweights, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, are well on their way toward officially getting in, too.
There are plenty of other hopefuls, still daydreaming of -- even hungering for -- the Oval Office.
But there is a sense that the window is rapidly closing, as billionaire funders, Beltway elites, and early-state activists and kingmakers in both parties sidle up to those already in the field. Candidates need to get a move on, if for no other reason than they need enough of a following in the polls to qualify for primary debates. If headlines reflect something of a collective unconsciousness, then many of the lesser luminaries who have yet to jump in may have already been left behind.
This week, we explore which of these potential candidates still pique interest, and which have already peaked. They are listed in descending order of plausibility, having been ranked using one of Trail to the Chief's secret, house-made big data algorithms. This formula combines the likelihood of a candidate’s entry into the race with whether anyone in the country cares at all if that person jumps in.
Candidate Photos: Getty, Associated Press