Why was the Democratic establishment so united behind Clinton in the beginning?

[Beet]

I get why they supported her over Sanders, but I'm asking why they tried to clear the field for her early on. It seems that her flaws as a candidate should have been clear then. Were they trying to avoid a primary battle altogether? Did they think that any other plausible candidate had no chance?

To whom? If you read the threads from back in 2013 to mid 2015, you see people mostly praising her. I was one of the few people saying she'd be a bad candidate, but no one listened to me.

[Beet]

I get why they supported her over Sanders, but I'm asking why they tried to clear the field for her early on. It seems that her flaws as a candidate should have been clear then. Were they trying to avoid a primary battle altogether? Did they think that any other plausible candidate had no chance?

To whom? If you read the threads from back in 2013 to mid 2015, you see people mostly praising her. I was one of the few people saying she'd be a bad candidate, but no one listened to me.

Everyone at RRH was well aware of how bad a candidate she was back in the post-midterm days of 2014/early 2015.

Yeah but Democrats are going to dismiss it as just the gripes of a right-of-center community. Very few left-of-center people were saying she was unelectable.