Who could do it? Andrew Sabl at Samefacts asks this question, and sets up what any challenger to Hillary Clinton (presuming again that she is running) would need to look like:
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—the same issue that sank Hillary in 2008, and that deserves to sink her now—and a history of running, long before Elizabeth Warren, as a candidate of “the people” against “powerful forces.” It would help if the candidate had vast personal wealth, maybe not enough to self-finance a whole campaign, but enough to buy a campaign infrastructure and the advertising to compete immediately in early primary states, 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. It would help, morally if not politically, if the candidate were universally regarded as caring fervently and persistently—as Clinton palpably does not—about the biggest issue of our time, global warming. Finally, it would be great if the candidate had a demonstrated willingness to tick off both Clintons, and were old and accomplished enough not to care about the future consequences of doing so if the challenge failed—though let’s say not too much older than Hillary Clinton, or a tiny bit younger.
The candidate he is describing here is Al Gore — who Sabl notes doesn’t look like he is coming out of retirement any time soon. Al Gore is interesting to consider — his campaign in 2000 wasn’t particularly good and the CW was that his campaign really squandered their opportunity. In his tour to promote An Inconvenient Truth, I think that he demonstrated to a bunch of people that he wasn’t the stiff automoton that he came off as on the campaign trail. Still, you’d have to craft quite the story of an Al Gore who has learned the lessons of that campaign to think this would be possible. Intriguing, I definitely admit.
But who else could credibly challenge her? I know lots of people want Elizabeth Warren to run, but I think money would be an issue for her. Sherrod Brown’s name comes up too, as does Matrin O’Malley’s. Tell us what you think about a potential challenger to Hillary for the Democratic nomination.