And just like in 2012, part of this is about voter frustration with the personality vacuum and the “Lie back and think of England” quality to Hillary’s campaign. This presents an opportunity for someone to come in and just neg the situation and get crowds. That’s all Sanders is really doing, and when De Blasio did a tiny amount of it, it set off a storm.

Just think of the list of people who could beat Hillary Clinton easily for the Democratic nomination if they wanted to run, and actually tried. Elizabeth Warren. Oprah. Stephen Spielberg. George Clooney. The cancer lady from ESPN. Michelle Obama. Tim Cook. Patty Murray. Basically every rich tech industry liberal donor except Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge, or every Hollywood liberal with a Q rating above zero. This is a long list.

So the question is: why aren’t any of these people running, if only to fill the progressive personality vacuum? There’s no real negative to getting in, making some noise, representing the progressive wing of the party throughout the fall and then taking your lumps come February. Is it that they all really are ready for Hillary, ready to believe in the Clinton machine? Or is it that you just needed to see Bernie Sanders get to 30 percent to wonder if this god still bleeds?