Is there any way Newcom, or any of the voters, especially women voters, who so strongly supported Clinton the last time around — the ones who had a difficult time accepting Barack Obama’s victory in the hard-fought 2008 Democratic primaries — is there any way they would ever support any other candidate, if Clinton is in the 2016 field? That’s hard to imagine, even if the other candidate is a woman, like Klobuchar or Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Away from the stage, Klobuchar had to heap even more praise on Mrs. Clinton. “She’d be great,” Klobuchar told the Des Moines Register. Saying she would like to see Mrs. Clinton run, Klobuchar told the paper, “I have a lot of respect for her, but she’s going to have to make that decision, and I know there’s other people interested as well, so we’ll have to see.”

In all, Klobuchar’s Iowa visit posed a difficult question for Democrats with 2016 ambitions: How can a candidate campaign for himself or herself if so much tribute must be paid to Hillary Clinton? By all accounts, Mrs. Clinton can afford to wait quite a while before she enters the race and has to attend events like the North Iowa Democratic Party Wing Ding. In the months — perhaps more than a year — before she has to make a decision, what can other Democrats do? Campaign for themselves while saying how great it will be if Clinton enters the race? It’s a terrible choice for any Democrat trying to move ahead in the race.