Now, my choice as the Democratic candidate to replace President Biden is George Clooney.

Yes, I'm half-serious. No, I don't expect anyone else, let alone an Oscar-winning actor, to take me seriously.

While a $400,000 salary plus free housing, food and travel may sound very appealing to most people, his lifestyle, privacy and salary would be greatly compromised — even as his workload increases dramatically.

Why Clooney?

Most importantly, he would easily, perhaps overwhelmingly, defeat the dangerous Donald Trump. Clooney is the better actor. That's all Trump is, except a compulsive liar. Clooney is more than that.

He has a gentle smile that exudes sincerity and is very TV-friendly; Trump, with his pouting lips and grimacing face, is a frightening sight.

Clooney is a principled man and a humanitarian. Trump is a selfish opportunist and a hatred monger.

Clooney is relatively young for a recent presidential candidate: He's a spry 63, while Trump is a whiny, moody 78.

Why else?

Clooney, unlike other leading Democratic politicians, had the courage to speak honestly with the public, share his views and urge Biden not to seek reelection — just weeks after co-hosting a star-studded, $30 million Hollywood fundraising event for the president.

“I love Joe Biden. … These last four years, he's won many of the battles he's faced. But the one battle he can't win is the battle against time. None of us can win that.” Clooney wrote in a New York Times op-ed:

He was referring to the 81-year-old president's disastrous performance in a debate with President Donald Trump.

Clooney wrote that the Biden he saw at the fundraiser was not the Biden of four years ago, saying, “He was the same person we all saw at the debates.”

“Our party leaders should stop telling us that 51 million people didn't see what we saw… [ABC] The George Stephanopoulos interview only reinforced what we saw last week. … Is it fair to point these things out? It has to be. … We are not going to win in November under this president. …

“Democratic leaders… need to call on this president to voluntarily step aside… Will that be messy? Yes. Democracy is messy. But will it energize our party and awaken voters who were already disengaged long before the June debates? Sure it will.”

Agree.

Biden has been a good president despite some missteps, especially on illegal immigration, but that doesn't mean he'll be as effective in a second term.

And Biden's candidacy is not sustainable: Support among Democrats is collapsing.

More importantly, voters have been telling pollsters for months that they wanted a younger Democratic standard-bearer. But Democrats didn't listen. Now Biden is falling further and further behind Trump, and there's even speculation that blue states could turn purple.

Biden supporters like California Governor Gavin Newsom may effusively praise the president, but too many voters have lost faith in Biden's intelligence. They doubt whether he can beat Trump and, if he does, whether he would perform well in the Oval Office.

Biden's hour-long press conference Thursday night went well.

Freed from the pointless two-minute time limit for answering questions in a televised debate, Biden was able to deliver thoughtful responses, particularly when answering foreign policy questions about dealing with China and Russia.

But he awkwardly stumbled on the first question, when Biden was asked whether he was worried about whether Vice President Kamala Harris could beat Trump if she became the nominee.

“Look, if I didn't think President Trump was qualified to be vice president, I wouldn't have chosen her to be vice president. So let's start there,” he replied.

It might be dismissed as a minor slip-up, but the president had made a similar name slip just an hour earlier, when, at a ceremony in Washington, Biden mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a Russian tyrant who had invaded Zelensky's country.

“Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Biden said, then quickly came back to his senses.

And during a July 4 radio interview, Biden said, “I'm proud to be the first vice president and the first Black woman to serve with a Black president.”

He misspoke a commonly used line about being proud to have served with the first black president and to have selected the first black woman as his vice president — an all-too-familiar linguistic gaffe that highlighted voter concerns about the president's decline.

Clooney is a world-class communicator.

He's from Kentucky and could probably rally support from the southern border states. Remember that great movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou” in which he played a bluegrass lead singer? Sure, he was an escaped convict, but that was just fiction. Trump is a real felon.

Clooney piloted his swordfish fishing boat, the Andrea Gail, into a “Perfect Storm” and the ship sank, but I'm sure he won't sink the ship of state.

Look at how cleverly and deftly he takes down the crooked corporate lawyer who was trying to kill him in “Michael Clayton.”

And in The Descendants, he showcased his environmental commitment and family values.

Politicians should never underestimate their voters' desire for entertainment.

Clooney is a movie star who never held public office, but neither did actors Ronald Reagan or Arnold Schwarzenegger before being elected governor of California.

And reality TV personality Donald Trump had never held public office until the shocking event of his election as president.

Yes, Clooney will not be nominated for president. The Democratic Party has no imagination.

But they should entertain us at their conventions in August with a competitive, open battle to determine the best candidate to stop Trump — and that candidate will not be Biden.