If the heathy adults in the party wanted Joe to retire early so that there would be time for a competitive nominating process, can you connect those dots?

It doesn't matter what they wanted at that point. It's very obvious that even though they wanted there to be a competitive nominating process, they weren't able to make that happen. There's a reason they couldn't make that happen. You can't have a competitive nominating process if no one's willing to enter the process against Harris.

Again, I ask you - who is the person? Who is the potential candidate that's got enough heft within the party that they could realistically have a shot at winning a made-up, no-rules, starting from months behind race against the sitting VP....and who's willing to risk making a play for it in that crazy scenario instead of just waiting until 2028?

The reason we didn't have a competitive open primary in June 2024 is because there wasn't such a person. And that would have been just as true in January 2024 as June. If Biden had declined to run altogether, there are lots of ordinary candidates that would have run against Harris. But entering from a dead stop in December 2023 in a contest where Biden-Harris has already assembled a full campaign and fundraising team, and you've got nothing?

Who's doing that?