The curtain came down on Howard Dean’s Hamlet act this morning. After a few weeks of something approaching suspense, Dean announced he would not run for governor.

And now here we are, 10 days away from the filing deadline for major party candidates and the only Democrat in the race is Esther Charlestin, who is (1) almost entirely unknown, (2) has never run for public office*, and (3) has shown no signs at all of mounting a serious campaign. Not even an underfunded, scrappy effort like those of the last three Democratic candidates for governor.

*Correction: Charlestin has run for, and won a seat on, the Middlebury selectboard.

Former Burlington mayor Miro Weinberger is still pondering*, but really. If Dean’s internal polling showed him ten points behind incumbent Gov. Phil Scott, what could possibly convince Weinberger to step in? Or anyone else, for that matter?

*Whoops, that didn’t age well. Channel 22/44 anchor Lauren Maloney took to Twitter early this afternoon with news that Weinberger does “not intend to be a candidate for public office this fall.”

This is my cue to decry the cowardice of plausible Democratic candidates. And it’s undeniable that there are a whole bunch of Dems sitting on their hands, hoping to be at the front of a very long line when Scott finally decides to retire. But I have to admit, if I were one of them, I’d be doing the same thing. It’s really, really hard to run a serious statewide campaign. It’s doubly hard when you know that much of your party’s base is in the bag for the incumbent. And that the donor class is either backing Scott or staying away from the race entirely.

Just ask Sue Minter what it’s like to throw your heart and soul into running against Phil Scott only to lose — and find yourself seemingly unemployable in the aftermath. It’s no fun, that’s for sure.

Dean’s dalliance was a nice little distraction for a minute, but that’s all it was. It was also a chance for the former gov to take one last turn in the spotlight and remind everyone what a wonderful guy he is. I mean, his number-one stated reason for bowing out is that he would have had “to run a scorched-earth, negative attack campaign” to close that 10-point gap, but that’s “not the Vermont way, and I was not going to be the one who made it the Vermont way.”

My hero, selflessly foregoing his chance at slaying the dragon.

Great. But the dragon is still out there. This year, Scott has moved perceptibly to the right in his willingness to attack the Dem/Prog Legislature and act as a roadblock, not a visionary leader. Barring the truly unforeseen, like a comet smashing into the Pavilion Building during business hours, we’re in for at least two more years of divided government. That means two more years of drift, as the state faces a growing list of critical challenges.

It’s the very beginning of the campaign season, and where’s the drama? What are the unanswered questions? Nothing on the statewide ballot is likely to be competitive in the least. The only real issue to be decided in November is whether the Dem/Prog alliance retains its supermajority. That’s it.

Gonna be fun times for the political observer class, that’s for sure.