A strange thing happened on the way to the coronation — people began looking for alternatives to Democratic nobility, such as it is. Until Hillary Clinton actually began running, no one of consequence appeared on the horizon to challenge her for the nomination, and so the power brokers lined up early to curry favor with the once and future Queen. Now that her weaknesses as a candidate have been exposed, again, those power brokers have more leeway to exercise leverage over Hillary. That’s why Big Labor has not rallied to Hillary’s side, and in fact may weigh in on behalf of one of her rivals unless she acts to secure their support:

Labor leaders are “playing hard to get” with Hillary Clinton in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Many of the nation’s top unions are sitting on the sidelines, content to let Clinton sweat it out while they withhold endorsements. …

“Say you’re in love with a girl and want to marry her. She’s playing it cool. So you figure the best way to make her jealous is to flirt with someone else,” said Democratic strategist Brad Bannon.

“Trumka wants to marry Hillary, but until she’s willing to make stronger commitments to labor he’s going to flirt with Bernie and Biden,” Bannon added.

“That will get Hillary’s attention.”

Six months ago or more, the rush to get Hillary’s attention took a much more sycophantic form. Now, with her legal and political troubles mounting and her mediocre talents fully exposed, Hillary needs Labor more than Labor needs Hillary. In fact, Hillary could become an albatross for them, and it makes sense to take a hands-off approach to see just how her campaign woes play out.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s getting a hero’s welcome from steel worker unions:

Chants of "Run Joe, Run" as Biden marches with US Steel workers union.

— Ken Thomas (@KThomasDC) September 7, 2015

Hillary’s problems are not limited to the labor coalition within the Democratic Party. She’s failing miserably at generating enthusiasm among millennials, the demographic that produced much of the energy in the Barack Obama coalition. Salena Zito reports on Hillary’s campaign in Ohio, which looks like flop so far, one that exposes her lack of insight into the electorate she assumes she’ll own by default:

The event here wasn’t just a failure to connect with millennials, but a fundamental inability to read her audience and adjust her speech — or perhaps laziness, or a sense of entitlement that she shouldn’t have to work this hard for support. Perhaps it was all of that.

“Fired up! Ready to go!” an early speaker shouted as he prepared the crowd for Clinton. He received only a smattering of polite claps, despite several attempts to get the crowd excited. …

Clinton spoke for 30 minutes on voter suppression, gun control, women’s reproductive rights; she called Republicans “terrorists” and championed foster care. The only time she caught the audience’s attention was with a brief mention of college affordability.

It was as if time had passed her by.

This trip was billed as a grassroots support mechanism, with every attendee required to sign a pledge of support before entering the field.

What it showed was a campaign staff that is underachieving at best or failing their candidate at worst, and a candidate trapped by that staff’s arrogance and her own insecurity as a campaigner.

The crowd was seriously underwhelming, Salena notes, and “scores” of those appeared to only attend out of curiosity, or perhaps just a lack of other options for entertainment. “I also had nothing else to do at 10 in the morning,” one tells her after also noting that he’s a fan of Bernie Sanders. A Democratic candidate who can only manage to attract the scraps of an avowed socialist on her campaign stops is one in serious trouble, and a party that will be in worse shape for a general election.