Will 2020 race be a repeat of ’04 for Democratic hopefuls?

Democrats by 2004 had become obsessed with defeating incumbent President George W. Bush.

In the 2000 election, Bush had won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote. Democrats were still furious that Bush supposedly had been “selected” by the Supreme Court over the contested vote tally in Florida rather than “elected” by popular vote.

By late 2003, Bush’s popularity had dipped over the unpopular Iraq War, which a majority in both houses of Congress approved but had since disowned.

Bush was attacked nonstop as a Nazi, fascist and war criminal. “Bush lied, people died” was the new leftwing mantra.

There was talk of Bush’s impeachment. His father, George H.W. Bush, lost his reelection bid in 1992. Democrats hoped the same fate awaited his son.

Neither presidential candidate Al Gore nor vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman from the defeated 2000 ticket wanted to run again in 2004.

Oddly, none of the Democrats wished to identify with the last successful liberal president, two-term Bill Clinton, or his policies.

For most of 2003, according to polls, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean was the front-runner of the Democratic primary field.

Dean was running on an everharder-left agenda. His chief allure to primary voters was that he was the most venomous of the candidates in references to Bush.

The Democratic field featured even more radical fringe candidates. The so- called “centrists”found no traction as the entire Democratic field went harder left.

As the first 2004 primaries loomed, Democrats worried that Dean was too far ahead to be stopped. They warned of a landslide loss similar to the one Democrats suffered in 1972.

Few realist Democratic candidates for congressional seats wanted to run with Dean at the head of the ticket. By default, the worried Democratic establishment then rallied around late-entering Sen. John Kerry to stop Dean in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Kerry was considered a safe liberal option. Kerry certainly would not behave like the unpredictable loudmouth Dean.

The safe Kerry won the Democratic nomination, but went on to lose to Bush in a close election.

Something similar is shaping up for the Democrats in 2020. The 20- candidate field is larger than it was in 2004 — and even weirder.

Yet the left-wing favorites — Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — are all running on agendas that don’t earn majority support among the general electorate.

Strangely, many of the top contenders are critical of once-revered former President Barack Obama and his policies.

In the initial debates, many chief Democratic contenders seemed resolute that no other candidate would sound more left-wing.

Many of the Democratic contenders support “Medicare for All,” repartitions for slavery, the Green New Deal, a wealth tax and much higher taxes overall.

And then there is 76-year- old Joe Biden, the longtime senator and former vice president.

Biden, like Kerry, is an old political warhorse. For now, he poses as the Democratic establishment’s only safe bet.

Like Kerry, Biden has lots of flaws, is an erratic campaigner and is gaffeprone. Yet Biden continues to poll as the front-runner, mostly because the majority of Democratic voters realize that none of the scary hard-left alternatives have any chance against the hated Donald Trump.

Fifteen years ago, the Democrats backed off from the hard left and took the safe route in nominating a boring and sedate party man — and came close to winning against a controversial incumbent president.

This time around, Democrats may have no choice but to try the 2004 formula again — even if it ends with the same close but ultimately losing result.