Really, Bernie Sanders is the Howard Dean of this cycle.

Which is not a compliment, of course: but Ben Domenech puts his finger on Sanders’ appeal.

Sanders can’t actually win because the Clinton machine would nuke him from orbit if he got to close, which they can do because he’s an old white socialist – but there’s no question he’s closer to today’s Democratic base voters on questions of ideology than Hillary Clinton. For Democrats who see Hillary the way some Republicans saw Romney or Dole – support borne out of grudging resignation that this is the best of a series of bad options, that it’s their turn, that you’re ready for it – the frustration is still palpable. Just as Republicans in 2012 were desperate for someone to jump in and present a challenge, so Democrats are today.

Ben goes on to suggest – probably with malice aforethought – that the list of people who could beat Hillary Clinton in a nomination fight is long, and detailed. I go back and forth on that; the problem for the Democrats here is that Team Hillary is made up of people with precisely zero to lose… which is their campaign’s parallel to Howard Dean, actually. In 2004 Dean got a bunch of techie people eager to make their bones – and who were convinced that you could squeeze all the moneys out of the Internet. So they convinced the Dean campaign to let them try, and proceeded to raise ridiculous amounts of cash, using techniques that every campaign has more or less adopted since.

The difference, of course, between that krew and Clinton’s is that Hillary’s people know that without their patron, they are nothing. If Hillary is not the nominee, then they will have spent the last decade making enemies in a town that never forgets a grudge. So Hillary must be the nominee. She must. Even if she loses, she will be able to be de facto party head for… a while.  Long enough.

It’s all very sad.  …Well, I assume that it’s all very sad. Objectively speaking, somebody must find this exercise in applied karma to be unfortunate.