Hillary - Is She All The Democrats Have?

A headline on The Hill announces that the Democrats are beginning their transition from Obama to Hillary. A couple of Senators have already endorsed her.  I'm wondering if this is faith or folly.

Many will say she had no stellar accomplishments to her name as either a Senator nor Secretary of State.  She has the spectacle of prostitute chasing drug indulging security personnel to clear up not to mention the truth about her part in the Benghazi debacle. Will a cult like following be enough to get her to the Presidency?  Remember she will be 69 years old and has already had a run of bad health from overdoing her schedule as Secretary of State.

Who would be the fall back should she decide not to run or is unable to run?  Joe Biden?  Our current champion of foot in mouth disease, though Chuck Hagel is becoming a good runner up.  I don't think Hagel has Presidential ambitions though.  Joe's age, too, could be an issue. Would the fact he's the Vice President who didn't get the endorsement of his boss be a drawback?  Would the Dems jump on his band wagon after throwing him over in favor of Hillary? How far can false enthusiasm carry a candidate?  Look no further than McCain and Romney to see how that works.

If there is no other known entity waiting in the wings, and I can't think of one, it would appear the Republicans are really in better shape.  Forget whether or not you like the men or their policies, there are just more of them.  You have Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz all talked about as potential candidates. And Hillary.

With Hillary you'll have to take her on blind faith.  With no competition not much will be revealed in debates, not that there ever is.  With the Republicans, there are enough serious contenders to have something to which it would behoove you to pay attention.

There's one more factor that may work against Hillary.  Party fatigue.  After eight years of Democratic rule will the people be tired of them?  Will they see that beyond grandiose rhetoric there is little if anything positive to show? Their policies didn't work?

Or will they once again be swayed by celebrity and this time gender rather than race? Who knows.  There was a time I could read the American people pretty well.  We were more alike than different in those long gone days. We had the same goals, just differing approaches as to how best to accomplish them.  We used to be able to compromise. We used to be civil to and about one another.

Now no one trusts anybody.  We lie. We cheat. We name call. We have few convictions and pay little attention until a crisis looms.

I guess for the time between now and 2016 the game will be handicapping possible  Republican candidates.  The Democrats appear to be a slam dunk. That's no fun - a game with no players. Handicapping Hillary against the Republicans, however, should prove interesting.  I only hope it's as easy as it should be.