MORE WORRIES FOR HILLARY – AT 8:23 A.M. ET:  This just isn't Hillary's month.  She can't catch a break.  Only the expectation of a grandchild brings happiness.  Politically, knives are suddenly out for her.  From Commentary:   

Are Democrats bored by the prospect of not having a presidential nomination contest in 2016? That’s the upshot of a statement made by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick yesterday on CNN’s State of the Nation program in which he wondered if the “inevitability factor” would hurt Hillary Clinton’s prospects:

She’s an enormously capable candidate and leader. But I do worry about the inevitability because I think it’s off-putting to the average voter and I think that was an element of her campaign the last time. As an enthusiastic Democrat, I just hope that the people around her pay attention to that this time.

The need to learn the lessons of her disastrous failure to make good on similar predictions of inevitability before 2008 must haunt the Clinton camp. While Hillary doesn’t need Deval Patrick to remind her of this, the truth is, she is hoping that this time the boredom factor will work in her favor. Clinton and her backers haven’t had to do much to discourage other potential Democratic contenders from entering the race and most appear to have taken the hint, including potential troublemakers like California Governor Jerry Brown and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. The Clintons have to think that the unexpected emergence of Barack Obama in 2007 is a once-in-a-lifetime fluke that cannot possibly be repeated this time around and it’s difficult to argue the contrary case. The only other obvious Democratic possibilities for 2016 are Vice President Joe Biden, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, and perhaps an outlier like Vermont Socialist Bernie Sanders or Montana’s Brian Schweitzer.

Neither Biden nor O’Malley—who is being openly mocked for asking Hillary’s permission before starting preparations for a candidacy—appear to scare the Clintons, and Sanders has no chance of being anything more than a gadfly left-wing alternative. Unless something completely unexpected happens, there is no reason to believe the 2016 Democratic race will be anything but a coronation. But the assumption that this will be an advantage in the general election may not be so smart.

COMMENT:  Several months ago it was conventional wisdom that this was Hillary's moment, that the Dems wouldn't dare take the nomination away from her a second time, and that the country "owed" her the right to be the first woman president. 

But the country doesn't owe the presidency to anyone.  And Obama's failure may sour Americans on the idea of another election devoted to the worship of race, gender, and ethnicity. 

It will be up to the Republicans, though, to nominate a first-class candidate.  If they don't, they deserve what they get in either a Hillary presidency, or, if she's out of it, someone possibly much worse. 

May 20, 2014