Bernie Sanders, a draft
Elizabeth Warren effort, all noble but not even close to the insurgency needed since RFK/McGovern, Run Jesse Run, Teddy, and even Hillary's PUMAs.
And despite fundraising, the "mother's milk of politics", 2016 will still be about that new statistical pseudo-variable "excitement". A campaign of "granny-ness" for HRC will not do it in terms of thinking about the demographics in an age where millennials exhibit the usual ageist disdain for those of us who actually know how to text but chose to interact using other communication channels.
The electorate has seen the machinations of the GOP: voter suppression, gerrymandering, SCOTUS-rigging, Swiftboating, yet the Democrats more often than not have snatched defeat from victory.
There will be the usual hand-wringing in DK, something of which one can get weary, but it will be interesting to see if there will be something that will come from all of this and more than simply reacting to the usual bunch of GOP asshattery.
Hillary Clinton is as close to a pre-selected candidate as this cycle'll see. Conventional wisdom suggests Republicans choose their nominee based on whose "turn" it is following the previous election. Bob Dole, John McCain, and Mitt Romney all finished second in the primary race the cycle before they were nominated. Yet this time it's Democrats with the seemingly pre-selected candidate. It's actually nothing new. Clinton played the same role in 2008 but paid millions of dollars to campaign advisers who didn't understand how primary processes work. In 2004, Kerry seemed a fait accompli and 2000 was Al Gore's year. Walter Mondale, the 1984 candidate, was Jimmy Carter's vice president. Bill Clinton may have come out of nowhere, but 1992 was a year few Democrats wanted to go up against a then-popular incumbent president. Democrats may be just as fond of coronations as Republicans, and more so this cycle.
Republico has been spending time filling in the blanks, although their emphasis on Bubba seems also intended to set him up for the eventual GOP/'bagger attacks to remind the base of his mistakes.
Reflecting other lessons learned, the campaign is being planned with more of a “big-tent mentality,” as one adviser put it. And Bill Clinton is being integrated from the start, after feeling isolated from parts of her campaign against Barack Obama.
One component of Hillary Clinton’s emerging strategy involves quietly but aggressively courting key endorsers from the left, who could help increase progressives’ comfort level and take the wind out of a potential challenge. Two top targets: Robert Reich, the economist and former labor secretary in her husband’s administration, and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the civil rights icon. In December, she won public endorsements from former Democratic National Committee Chairman and Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.)...
Clinton will enter the Democratic race with a bang — and virtually no opposition to speak of. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who could mount a serious campaign from the left, has said she won’t run, and is making no behind-the-scenes preparations. Vice President Joe Biden says he might very well run — but mainly wants his name in the mix in case Clinton implodes.
This leaves a trio of long shots with scant money: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and former Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia.
The potential opposition is so weak that Clinton might wind up not even debating during the primaries, which many Democrats view as a mixed blessing.
The Clinton team knows it can’t campaign with the swagger of a presumptive nominee because the air of inevitability was so damaging last time around. That said, some advisers are already privately talking up potential running mates, with Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado and Tim Kaine of Virginia dominating the early speculation.
Some advisers expect a push for diversity on the ticket. So the shortlist also is expected to include Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, Labor Secretary Tom Perez, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and perhaps California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who is running for U.S. Senate.
(2013) Starting with President Obama's cabinet, two women stand out: Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and former Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. Both women have not only served as cabinet-level appointees and held elective office in their own right, but each has developed deep ties to key liberal constituencies within the Democratic Party. Certainly, one has to imagine that both have better relationships with progressive activists and labor unions than much-discussed Maryland governor Martin O'Malley.
This is also true of newly-elected, but nationally-known Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Another Democratic contender, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, possesses not only political experience, but also access to wealthy Manhattan liberals who are as likely to support her as Governor Andrew Cuomo should Hillary Clinton not run.