I am getting a strange feeling in my gut that the presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee, Joe Biden, already might have a super-short list of individuals he will consider to run with him against Donald John Trump.

Biden, who served two terms as vice president during the Obama administration, laid down an important marker at the Sunday debate with Sen. Bernie Sanders. He said he would select a woman to run with him as vice president if the Democratic Party nominates him as president this summer.

There. He’s now committed. No turning back, Mr. Vice President.

But wait a second. Now comes some chatter that Biden is going to look only at the women who once ran against him for the 2020 party nomination. They are Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (who’s still in the race).

I want to implore the former VP to look as well far beyond that short list. The nation is full of women who, in Biden’s terms, could “serve as president today.” They serve in the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House, in statehouses all over the land. They are titans of business and industry. They are retired from public service, but still with plenty of ideas and energy to offer the nation.

Joe Biden already has limited his list of potential VP nominees by excluding men. I’m OK with that. I just don’t want him to limit the remaining still-vast field of potential running mates to just those who have shared debate stages with him in the current campaign.