With the midterms still a few days away, is it way too early to talk about the 2028 presidential election? I don't think so. Many of us, red and blue alike, have been eyeing 2028 since, well, 2024. That may include President Donald Trump, who likes to sport that "Trump 2028" hat. Leaving aside whether he's trolling, teasing, or deadly serious, it suggests a top-of-mindness to what I think will be a massively momentous and contentious election.

So, let's noodle on '28: Who's in the hunt, and who will win the prize?

For the GOP there's JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Ron DeSantis, Ted Cruz, and maybe Sarah Huckabee Sanders. On the Democratic side: Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, Josh Shapiro, and Andy Beshear. And many more, too.

Identifying a winning candidate shouldn't be that difficult, says veteran political analyst Charlie Cook, publisher of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. But Democrats in particular, says Cook, a loquacious Louisianian, tend to define electability as a candidate who thinks just the way they do.

Instead, a presidential candidate should be able to answer "yes" to what Cook says are three immutable questions. "No. 1, if you can't win four out of seven swing states -- Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina -- what good are you?" he asks. "You must be able to win independent voters or voters from the other party. Why bet on a sports team that has never won an away game?"

No. 2: "Can you withstand a full-cavity search from opposition research?" Cook asks. "Running for senator or governor before doesn't count. We're talking about a serious, serious, serious search for any kind of baggage. And third: Can you raise money?"

I want to focus a bit on a candidate who may check Cook's first box -- bipartisan appeal -- that being Andrew "Andy" Beshear (pronounced Buh-sheer), the moderate Democratic governor of Kentucky. Two points: Yes, I wouldn't be adverse to a president named Andrew, though the two previous have been a) controversial (Jackson), and b) no bueno (Johnson).

Second, how did a Democrat win the governor's race twice in red-state Kentucky, which Trump won by more than 25 percentage points three elections in a row? For starters, Beshear's a nepo baby. His father, Steve Beshear, was governor of the Bluegrass State from 2007 to 2015. Plus, Beshear the Younger faced what Cook calls a "pretty unpopular" incumbent in 2019, and still barely won his election.

In 2023, however, Beshear won by more than 65,000 votes, capturing 52.5% of the electorate and winning tens of thousands of independent and Republican votes. Now that's what Cook's talkin' about.

Could this Blue Dog-ish Democrat be president? I wondered as much when I heard Beshear speak at a private lunch in Midtown Manhattan, where the sold-out audience seemed to be pondering the same thing. Technically, Beshear, the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, is out boosting Democratic candidates and promoting his new book, Go and Do Likewise: How We Heal a Broken Country (his labradoodle, Winnie, is featured prominently with the candidate on the cover). But really, Beshear is raising his profile and fine-tuning a stump speech for a presidential campaign.

Southern, Christian, centrist, and seemingly as sober as a judge, Beshear presents as somewhere between Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. He's no Mr. Big Stuff, à la Clinton, but he isn't borderline somnolent like Carter. Truth be told, Beshear's only a bit more exciting than white bread heating up in a toaster, but maybe that isn't such a bad thing.

Beshear isn't shy about accentuating that he has brought business and jobs to Kentucky. "I consider myself a pro-business Democrat," he says, railing against overregulation and Nimby-ism. And he has a message for the Democratic Socialists of America: "Socialism is a failed experiment."

When it comes to healthcare, Beshear calls himself a "pragmatist." Could we come up with a better system? "Perhaps, but none of us should expect something new to come in on a white horse to save us all," he says, arguing we should fix "the system we already have."

Beshear is also proposing a "Fix the Darn Government Constitutional Amendment," which would 1) set term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court, 2) end stock trading by elected officials, 3) stop gerrymandering, 4) repeal Citizens United, 5) abolish the Electoral College, and 6) enshrine the Voting Rights Act.

Pie-in-the-sky stuff? Maybe. But I bet many if not most Americans support this. Politicians? Not so much.

Who might face Beshear? JD Vance? "I wouldn't bet on Vance," says Cook. "I think he's going to be too close to the crash site."

Cook says the Republican nominee won't be from the Mitt Romney, John McCain, or George W. Bush school. "That ship has sailed," he says. "It's going to be somebody with pretty impeccable conservative and/or populist credentials who can raise a hell of a lot of money. Is it a Ted Cruz type? If I had a choice of being Vance or Rubio or Cruz, I'd rather be Ted Cruz." DeSantis could be in the mix, as well, he says.

As for Beshear -- before Republicans get their undergarments in a twist, Cook has a hot take. "Do I expect Democrats to nominate Andy Beshear?" Cook asks. "No. I don't think Democrats are smart enough to do that."

Republicans might hope they don't wise up.