In the first it was discovered that the Clintons' charitable foundation received donations from foreign nations during her term as Secretary of State. The second surrounds Mrs Clinton's use of her personal email account – and indeed her own server – while at the State Department.  This is clearly a breach of protocol and perhaps the law, and its intent appears to have been to make it easier for her to avoid disclosure regulations.

Neither of the issues so far look to be fatal to Clinton's presidential ambitions, but they are dangerous because they reinforce the suspicion among the detractors that the Clinton family operation is paranoid, slippery and arrogant.

As night follows day the debate over the improprieties have prompted another round of the favourite pastime of a certain type if Democrat, the game of If Not Hillary, Then Who?

Though Clinton has not yet formally announced her candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, her shadow campaign is a giant among dwarfs. It looms so dominantly over the Democratic landscape, sucking up staff and donations, that many potential candidates are simply not bothering to engage.

So If Not Hillary, Then Who?

Joe Biden

Biden has proved a sure and loyal Vice-President to Barack Obama, to the point that the closeness between the two men has surprised observers. But he still has a crazy-uncle reputation and nobody really takes vice-presidents seriously anyway. After news of Hillary's emails broke one tweet that bounced around suggested Biden had promised to release both emails he had sent as VP.  According to the Real Clear Politics poll average he enjoys 12.8 per cent support.

Elizabeth Warren

If Hillary is the slightly abusive spouse the Democratic Party knows it needs to win the White House, Warren is the party's lost love. Warren, the senator for Massachusetts, has thrilled much of the party's base by articulately addressing economic inequality issues being otherwise ignored. But hard heads argue that she is unelectable.

She is feared and loathed by big business, which she has spent a career regulating. Like Obama she is a former Harvard law professor. Worse, she is from Massachusetts, just like Michael Dukakis, John Kerry and Mitt Romney. While many of her supporters are calling for her to run, so far she shows no sign of doing so. RCP gives her 12.4 per cent.

Martin O'Malley

O'Malley is the former governor of Maryland and his ambitions took a blow when his state fell to a Republican when his term ended. It also cannot help that he is one of the inspirations for the fictional character of Mayor Tommy Carcetti in the HBO series, The Wire.

But he is considered a political talent and as governor he was popular with progressives, banning the death penalty, legalising gay marriage and embracing green energy. Though RCP gives him just 1.2 per cent support, he is considered the most serious of the alternative contenders. This weekend he is testing the waters with voters in New Hampshire.

Bernie Sanders

The Vermont senator describes himself as a social democrat and has said he is considering a run in 2016. If he does so his purpose would be to promote the issues he believes and to drag Clinton to the left rather than to win. He has 3.8 per cent support according to RCP.

And what about Hillary's support? She has 56.8 per cent. With numbers like that she can afford to sit back in silence and wait for these political squalls to blow themselves out before she announces her candidacy.

As long as she stays officially out of the fray she avoids the need to take potentially contentious positions, and the risk of making mistakes on the hustings. All the while the Ready for Hillary political action committee spreads it networks and charges its campaign chest.