I am on record as saying that I don’t think Hillary is going to be the Democratic nominee.  I said that based on nothing but the fact she is a manifestly weak candidate (people don’t like her that much) and that a young senator came from nowhere to beat her last time.

It’s perhaps late in the game, but Hillary’s manifest weaknesses are leading Democrats to search frantically for an alternative including, The New York Times reports, Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks (you can see him here endorsing gay marriage at his annual corporate meeting):

Potent friends of America’s lord of latte, Howard Schultz, have been pressing him to join the Democratic primary, thinking the time is right for someone who’s not a political lifer.  For the passionate 62-year-old—watching the circus from Seattle—it may be a tempting proposition.

After coming up from the housing projects in Brooklyn, Schultz reimagined Starbucks and then revived it. He has strong opinions, and even position papers, about what he calls the fraying American dream.  While he was promoting his book on veterans last year, he honed a message about making government work again and finding ‘authentic, truthful leadership.’

This looks to me like the first big evidence of a Trump effect on the Democrats. Are America’s billionaires becoming tired of merely funding candidates and eager to grasp the reins of power directly?

Right now it is just a trial balloon. But a fascinating one.

Maggie Gallagher is a senior fellow at American Principles in Action.