Hillary Clinton may feel that she’s wrapped up the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, but that’s not the only one she needs to win. As the Chicago Tribune editorial board reports, there’s a larger contest looming on the horizon. Hillary’s supporters are already in something of a state of panic over the reluctance of Bernie Sanders’ backers to fall in line and the possibility of a revolt among the superdelegates if things go totally south, so her team hardly needs anything else to worry about. But the real primary challenge is going to be decided between a few people in the Justice Department.

Democrats have something else that wakes them up screaming in the middle of the night: the prospect that the FBI will recommend charges against Clinton or her aides when it completes its own probe. If Clinton loses the FBI primary, Trump could have an unimpeded path to the White House.

For most of the past year, Democrats have been happily distracted by the GOP’s apparent urge to blow itself up. They failed to notice they were walking into their own minefield without a map.

I just enjoyed that term… the FBI primary. The real question is whether or not the voting takes place before or after the convention in Philadelphia. Once those festivities draw to a close, the Democrats are basically stuck with Clinton for better or worse. But keep in mind the rather depressing figures we looked at just the other day. Nearly two thirds of voters are pretty sure Clinton broke the law, and yet fully half of them think she should run even if she’s indicted.

With all that in mind, is this really that much of a “primary” when all is said and done? There was a time, not all that long ago, when someone under federal indictment on serious charges of mishandling national security interests would have been disqualified by the voters. In fact, it would have been a landslide election against them. But today? Given the level of political polarization around the nation I could still see Hillary Clinton easily carrying above 90% of the Democrats and somewhere in the neighborhood of half the independents.

Or am I being too cynical again?