Many Democrats insist that the best thing is to hold the White House -- no matter how.
Conventional wisdom for 2016 goes like this: Republicans are heading toward a bruising primary while, if she runs, Hillary Rodham Clinton is the de facto Democratic nominee.
Clinton is a candidate of the past. She first came into the national political consciousness in 1991 and has barely receded from that spot for the better part of the last two decades.
Nominating her -- particularly if she is not seriously challenged in a primary -- will link the Democratic Party to the Clinton history.
Open presidential elections -- when your party has no sitting incumbent -- tend to be a moment in which a large-scale debate about what the party should look like going forward happens.
Stars emerge with new messages that move the party in new directions.
The presence of an heir apparent like Clinton stymies the rise of new stars -- and their messages -- for four or even eight years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/02/18/how-hillary-will-postpone-the-fight-for-the-future-of-the-democratic-party-and-why-that-might-not-be-a-good-thing/?tid=pm_politics_pop
