Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992 by running as a different kind of Democrat from previous nominees. Hillary Clinton, Anne Gearen of the Washington Post reports, is hoping to win the presidency in 2016 by running as the same kind of Democrat as the current incumbent.

There’s a certain logic in that. President Obama did win twice, while the five pre-Clinton Democratic nominees lost five of the six previous elections. But maybe it’s too logical. There’s also magic about presidential elections, something no arithmetic formula can capture. It’s not clear that a 69-year-old Hillary Clinton in 2016 can inspire the enthusiasm that the 47-year-old Obama did in 2008.