If you’d like to singe your eyebrows a bit this morning, have a look at the Toledo Blade’s editorial board's damning comparison of Richard Cordray, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for governor of Ohio, to Hillary Clinton.

The paper specifically compares Cordray’s seemingly preordained glide-path to the nomination to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 coronation, and warns that this is a prelude to what will probably be a similar end result.

Another version of “what happened” to the Democrats nationally in 2016: They rigged the system and sabotaged themselves...The party abandoned its neutral referee role and not only took a side, but cheated, to get Mrs. Clinton — the weakest and worst candidate — nominated. … The Ohio Democratic Party should take heed. In the contest that will essentially be between Richard Cordray and Dennis Kucinich for the Democratic nomination for governor, the party should stay out — it should not take a side.

The editorial, first posted yesterday, goes on to argue that Cordray is perhaps to Clinton as Sanders is to Dennis Kucinich, the liberal former Cleveland mayor, congressman and presidential candidate.

President Trump carried Ohio by more than 8 percentage points. A dull Clinton liberal is probably not the way to defeat Mike DeWine, who beat Mr. Cordray in their last matchup (for AG). Mr. Kucinich, on the other hand, is a fighter with genuine populist cred that can cut both left and right.

This may well overstate the case. In fact, it probably does. But Trump’s confounding blow-out in Ohio, coming right after Republicans’ 2014 sweep of the state's legislature and statewide offices, has to leave a terrible taste in Buckeye State Democrats’ mouth. They can’t afford to get it wrong in 2018.

And more importantly, no one in politics ever wants to see themselves compared to Clinton.