The No Labels people just can't seem to win for losing.

Since their inception as a "moderate," third-way political party-that's-not-a-party, they have been courting what they deem as moderates from both major parties. The problem they face is two-fold: First, third-party runs have a really bad track record in American presidential elections, and second, the people they are approaching are mostly refugees from the Island of Misfit Politicians.

The deep-pocketed centrist group once envisioned a vigorous public competition to join its ticket, which it planned to put on the ballot in all 50 states. Instead, it has been spurned by at least a dozen prominent figures from across the ideological spectrum and secured ballot access in just 17 states so far, despite having said it hoped to be on 27 state ballots by the end of last year.

It is belaboring the obvious to note that having a presidential candidate on only 27 state ballots is pretty futile, especially given that the Electoral College precludes aiming at a strategy focused only on a few high-population locations. It's not clear, of course, that this is what the No Labels group is doing, but they need to be doing something; the clock is ticking, and there are deadlines involved.

Previously on RedState: No Labels May Have No Donors As They Get Antsy About the Lack of a Presidential Ticket 

No Labels, No Presidential Candidate - Yet

What's interesting, and what may be revealing, is a look at the people they have approached.

Among the Republicans who have said no after approaches from the group: former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, according to public statements and sources familiar with their responses.

Liz Cheney? Seriously? The odds of Liz Cheney winning the presidency are about as high as the odds of Rachel Maddow changing her affiliation to Republican, buying a MAGA cap, and campaigning for Donald Trump. Few of the other candidates have much name recognition outside their home states, and besides, none of them are interested in running - at least not this year and not on the No Labels ticker.

On the Democratic side, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick declined No Labels’ entreaties, as did Democratic-turned-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. The group also engaged with former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

I confess a sneaky fondness for Kyrsten Sinema - I agree with very few of her policy positions, but she radiates a kind of "I don't give a tinker's damn what you think of me" attitude towards the legacy media and her fellow politicians that I find refreshing. But as a president? No. Ditto for Joe Manchin. They are yesterday's news.

Well-known non-politicians like businessman Mark Cuban and retired Navy Adm. William McRaven did not reciprocate interest from No Labels, either. No Labels’ search has gone far and wide — it even tried to make overtures to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

When a group like this starts trying to recruit celebrities who have name recognition but nothing else to recommend them, it's time to stick a fork in them - they are done. This is a group that, while they may be well-intentioned, is going nowhere, at least not this year. The race for president this year is going to be, barring some disaster, a contest between Democrat Joe Biden (or possibly Kamala Harris, if Joe Biden keeps having brain freezes) and Donald Trump. That is almost certainly what is going to happen.

But predictions are difficult to make, especially about the future, and the election is still almost eight months away. A lot can happen in eight months.