Andy Sabl surveys the Democratic field today and concludes that, sure enough, Hillary Clinton is the prohibitive frontrunner. Who could challenge her?
Any Democratic candidate jumping in at this point will have to have already demonstrated party loyalty, actual or likely executive skills, and the ability to win a majority of votes in both a party primary and a general election. Moreover, it would help if that candidate had a record of early and loud opposition to doing “stupid [stuff]” in the Middle East…It would help if the candidate had vast personal wealth….as well as strong and deep connections to Silicon Valley, the only serious rival to Wall Street (Clinton’s base) as a source of campaign cash.
So who could this be? Sabl is obviously describing Al Gore, and admits there’s zero evidence that Gore has any intention of running. “But if he did, and if he ran as the anti-war and populist—yet impeccably mainstream—candidate that Hillary clearly is not and has no desire to be, things would suddenly get interesting.”
I guess so. But that raises a question: Who would you like to see challenge Hillary? I’m not asking who you think is likely to run, just which plausible candidate you’d most like to see in the race.
I suppose my choice would be Sherrod Brown. He’s a serious guy who’s been in Washington for a long time. He opposed the Iraq War; he’s got good populist anti-Wall Street credentials; and he’s a solid labor supporter. He’s a pretty good talker, and never comes across as threateningly radical. As far as I know, he doesn’t have any skeletons in his closet serious enough to disqualify him. (Aside from the fact that he says he has no interest in running, of course.)
Who’s your choice? Plausible candidates only. Not Noam Chomsky or Dennis Kucinich. It’s surprisingly hard, isn’t it? The Democratic bench is actually pretty thin these days.
