All of the nine (or so) Democrats remaining in the hunt for the party’s presidential nomination say they want to be the person at the top of the heap.

But … do they?

It’s been fascinating in the extreme to listen to those in the the back-of-the-pack or the middle-of-the-pack crowd go after the front runners as they climb over each other in the race to curry voters’ favor.

We had Joe Biden standing as the prohibitive front runner for most of 2019. Then came the impeachment hearings and the Senate trial. Not only did Democratic opponents go hammer and tong at Biden, but then we had the congressional Republicans take up arms against him. They accused him, baselessly in my view, of being corrupt.

Biden has faded. Now it’s Bernie Sanders’ turn. Democrats are going after him for being a socialist, for advocating policies that will bankrupt the nation. Bernie is still standing relatively tall.

Oh, but Elizabeth Warren has gotten her share of brickbats from her Democratic foes, again largely on the same basis as the anti-Sanders attacks.

Pete Buttigieg has drawn his share of Democratic ire. He’s too green. He hasn’t developed a sufficient body of government experience.

OK, now it’s Michael Bloomberg’s turn. He is trying to “buy” the nomination. He is spending tens of millions of dollars of his own money to tell voters that he’s got the chops to do the job and — by the way — take down Donald John Trump.

It’s a nomination worth having for the moment. I am left to wonder though whether it will still be worth having when the Democratic contenders get done beating the stuffing out of whomever emerges from this donnybrook to go after the current president of the United States.