Does Hillary Clinton have the Democratic nomination wrapped up?

(Image credit: (Getty/Andrew Burton))

last updated 11 January 2015

Two important Democrats suggest that Hillary Clinton has already won the Democratic presidential nomination.

Robert Shrum, who was involved in eight Democratic presidential campaigns, says the media may want a race but it’s wishful thinking.

"Handicappers in the presidential race abhor the opposite of a vacuum — a campaign two years out where one candidate seems to blot out the entire field. Thus a mini-chorus now rises, and may swell, questioning Hillary Clinton's apparent lock on the 2016 Democratic nomination. It's a predictable reflex, but in cold, hard reality, logic suggests that the lock is authentic, not just apparent. And in modern history, or virtually all American history, Hillary's inevitability is unprecedented for a non-incumbent."

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Markos Moulitsas, who founded the influential Daily Kos website, says simply, "There is no alternative to Hillary this cycle."

"The last time anyone polled the Democratic primary field, Clinton had 73 percent of the vote, Biden 11, and Elizabeth Warren nine. That tells us a couple of things. One, 73 percent is A WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE. She is the consensus nominee, and if you disagree, you are objectively in the deep minority. Second of all, there is no one to provide even nominal challenge."

Both men point out that Hillary was touted as the inevitable candidate in 2008 — until she was beaten by Barack Obama in the primaries. But given the lack of any serious challenger, it’s hard to see how Clinton will lose this time around.

In fact, the only way Hillary will not be the nominee is if she doesn’t run.

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political websites. He also runs Wonk Wire and the Political Dictionary. Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and COO of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. senator and governor. Goddard is also co-author of You Won â€” Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including The Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Christian Science Monitor. Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.