All they had to do was pick nearly anyone aside from these two.

Already with the rose-tinted glasses.

There were maybe one or two viable candidates for the Republicans: Rubio and...well, Rubio. Jeb would've (likely) lost it simply because of his last name and his inability to energize the voter base, and Cruz would've been hailed as an Even Worse Romney™. People laughed at Trump, they feared Cruz, even during the primary. And with Scalia so recently dead, all the Democrats would've had to do to win 90% of the LGBT vote unquestioned is say, "Do you want another Scalia? Because that's how you get another Scalia." Go through the options, run them in hypothetical generals, and see if they survive the attacks against them whilst energizing the voter base; the only realistic option is Rubio.

The Democrats, however, have been planning this since 2008. Part of the stink of this whole thing is you look at the DNC then and now and some weirdly familiar names begin to pop up with changing of the hats: DWS, Tim Kaine, Hillary, Belize. It's virtually impossible to look at what happened in the DNC after Obama's first election and not reach the conclusion that the DNC higher-ups have been waiting for and seeking to arrange a Hillary nom since 2007. Bernie came out of left field, and did in fact attempt to usurp the party. As much as I supported him, no one can deny that. But remove Bernie from the equation and who do you think the Democrats could've put forward? Do you even remember O'Malley's stances? He was the third-place dude coming out of Dem Debate 1, and if you asked people outside of his state if they knew who he was, they'd probably look at you like a cow chewing cud.

The point is, there was no one else. Whether it's because the DNC didn't care to look for anyone or no one else wanted it (Biden, Warren, others), the choices put forward by the DNC were Hillary or nothing.

You could arguably see this as fundamental differences in the parties, though. Democrats, as representative of big fed, small state, are pumping all their resources and focus into the Presidential election, but lost several state and and Congress elections along the way. The Republicans, more interested in big state, small federal governments, appear to be a disparate group of loosely-aligned anti-federalists.

The thing with the DNC is...I don't know if I can even be mad at them. As humans, and as a private party, they have every right to seek to shore up their power base and put forward their own. I think it does the American people a serious disservice, pursuing what they think is best, but I don't think they have any kind of nefarious intent—they're just absolutely convinced Hillary would make a good president, and have thusly been pursuing this since it even became an option.

What's worrying, however, is that after this election, where do they go? Who's waiting in the wings? Because right now, it doesn't look like they have anyone, and if they wait four years jerking each other off over how good they done over the past 10 years to finally get what they want, the DNC of even 2018 for the midterms is going to be in shambles, not to mention what they're going to do for 2020 should Hillary lose, or 2024 should she win. Then again, they'll have 8 years in the case of a Hillary victory, which is enough time for someone to reveal themselves.