Are Democrats in trouble if Hillary's campaign collapses?

[Meeker]

Nah

fwiw, she's not going to "collapse". She's not Herman Cain or George McGovern. "Collapsing" requires a candidate taking a risk (which she won't do) or saying incredibly dumb things over and over again (which she also won't do). There's been no couple more closely scrutinized in American politics than the Clintons, and no couple with more experience speaking on the record. They can make bad strategic decisions (such as her entire 2008 campaign), but that's just called "losing". Losing is definitely is possible, but different from "collapsing".

But if something awful did happen, there are plenty of current and former Democratic senators and governors around who could step in. Off the top of my head come O'Malley, Warner, Kaine, Gillibrand, Klobuchar, Vilsack, Brad Henry, Roy Barnes, Bob Kerrey, Cuomo or Bayh if we must. And Biden. And Gore! Obviously not all of these would be ideal, but they're options in a crisis.

[Meeker]

All presidential elections are extraordinary things. They happen so infrequently with so much time and change in between that they're tough to really compare at all.