Why the Democrats’ bench is so weak

The controversy over Hillary Clinton’s e-mails and her unconvincing press conference at the United Nations have gotten many Democrats and others thinking the unthinkable: Clinton may not be the Democrats’ 2016 nominee for president.
And it has many asking the question — scary for Democrats — of who else could be.
It’s not a strong field. Vice President Joe Biden is 72 and has low poll ratings.
Elizabeth Warren inspires the Democratic left, but says she’s not running — perhaps for fear of exposure of her dubious claim, when seeking prestigious law-school jobs, of Cherokee ancestry.
Modal Trigger
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Photo: AP
Others are even less likely. Bernie Sanders, age 73, is a self-described socialist. The interesting Jim Webb is out of sync with an increasingly leftist party.
Martin O’Malley couldn’t get his lieutenant governor elected to succeed him in a 62 percent Obama state.
California Gov. Jerry Brown turns 78 in 2016. Andrew Cuomo lives with a woman not his wife — not a problem in New York, but not helpful for a national candidate.
Democrats have a weak field in part because of their poor showing in recent statewide elections. And there’s another problem.
The geographically clustered Obama coalition — blacks, Hispanics (in some states), gentry liberals — tends to elect officeholders with little incentive to compile records that would make them competitive in target states and capable of winning crossover votes.
That’s not just a problem facing contemporary Democrats. It has historic roots.

http://nypost.com/2015/03/13/why-the-democrats-bench-is-so-weak/