Exactly Right

Brian Beutler sums up my problem with an early Hillary coronation:

[A]ll candidates are fallible, and most of them are human, which means every campaign labors under the small risk of unexpected collapse. The one real advantage of a strong primary field is that it creates a hedge against just such a crisis. Right now either Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker or Jeb Bush is favored to win the Republican primary, but if both of them succumb to scandal or health scares, the GOP can shrug it off knowing that other seasoned Republicans have infrastructure in place, and are poised to swoop in if necessary.

If nobody serious challenges Hillary Clinton, nobody can be her understudy. In the near term that isn’t a problem, but if doubts about her inevitability develop late in the year or early next, the placid silence in the Democratic field will grow eerie. ***

If Hillary does end up getting the nomination, she'll almost certainly pick a Latino running mate, probably Julián Castro, former mayor of San Antonio and current HUD Secretary. Jeb Bush, the inevitable GOP nominee for 2016, will also pick a Latino running mate, and I'm pretty sure that person will be Marco Rubio.