As the 2020 presidential race shapes up as a free-for-all on the Democratic side, with perhaps up to two dozen candidates, and the prospect of a Republican primary challenge to President Trump fading fast, one GOP political consultant has proposed an extraordinary, bipartisan option.

Juleanna Glover advocates a Joe Biden/Mitt Romney ticket that would bypass the 2020 primary season and run as a third-party alternative to Trump and the eventual Democratic nominee in November 2020.

In a column written for Politico today, Glover admits that the idea initially “sounds crazy,” but she lays out the case for an entirely different approach toward the next presidential campaign, given the dynamics of the Trump era:

Glover

… This could be a “break-the-glass” moment for many Americans, creating an opening for a radical departure from our malfunctioning two-party political system. By injecting some ideological innovation into the process, we can break the hidebound precedents of two narrow parties running their ceremonious and illogical nominating process to select a candidate. (Why do Iowa and New Hampshire play such outsized roles? Why do independents, who outnumber both Democrats and Republicans, have only a binary political choice?) The system certainly suffered a critical failure in 2016, with both parties producing terribly flawed candidates in a race to the bottom.

Based on 2018 post-election political patterns, the incumbent president will likely run another combative, outlandish campaign, and the Democrats will fight throughout the primaries over which candidate can lean furthest left in an attempt to circumvent the democratic socialist mantle of Sen. Bernie Sanders.

In contrast, Glover argues that a relatively centrist, moderate ticket could cut through all the hyper-partisan divisions and emerge as a solid alternative. The idea of putting Biden at the top of the ticket is no small concession by Glover, who has worked as an adviser to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Rudy Giuliani, as well as John McCain and Jeb Bush. To be clear, she currently serves on the former VP’s Biden Institute Policy Board.

Glover points out that Biden leads the very early polling for the 2020 Dem nomination and his favorability ratings have touched the 60 percent range. With his blue-collar background, his rhetorical skills appeal to those working-class voters that the Democrats have lost to the GOP in recent years.

What’s more, the Delaware Democrat would start with enough name identification to make him an instant contender. As for the running mate, everyone knows that Romney is far more moderate than his calculated self-portrayal in the 2012 campaign season. His ability to articulately criticize the Trump presidency, while now muted, was on full display in early 2017.

In addition to Romney, Glover suggests that Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse or outgoing Ohio Gov. John Kasich could also serve as effective VP candidates. Any of the three would play the role of a GOP pragmatist in the campaign, eager to break the Capitol Hill gridlock if elected.

Glover puts it this way:

A third-party presidency would be genuinely disruptive. Today’s ironclad party discipline could well break down, and moderates on both sides could form a powerful, decisive block willing to work with the new president. The policies passed into law may not be ideal for either Democrats or Republicans, but that’s precisely the point: The major agenda items that must be addressed for America’s long-term fiscal health require each party to make sacrifices.

From a purely political standpoint, the proposal could prove potentially powerful. A Biden-Romney venture could win over many of the Blue States won by Hillary Clinton in 2016, plus some of the decisive Purple States of ’16 such as Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Sure, Biden would be 78 years old on inauguration day, and between the two of them, Biden and Romney have lost presidential bids several times in the past. More importantly, no attempt to elect a president by breaking the stranglehold of the two-party system has succeeded in the last 168 years. But 21st Century presidential politics have certainly strayed beyond the realm of historical consistency.

A recent Gallup poll found an unprecedented high of 61 percent of Americans would like to see a third-party bid for the presidency. Trump’s approval rating is holding steady at or near 40 percent. The Democratic Party drifts leftward, even as moderate Dems mostly produced the House gains in November in competitive seats.

At this point, the Biden-Romney prospect may sound like nothing more than a fantasy to political activists. But to mainstream, independent voters who reject the far right and the far left, it might look like the dawning of new day in American politics.