No storm starts off as a CAT 3 or 4 Hurricane. They start off as a tropical depression, work their way up to tropical storm, and then depending on the conditions, become a hurricane. With the exception of a Sandy, Andrew, or Katrina, most hurricanes never become "perfect storms". And Sandy, Andrew, and Katrina were such storms because of where they hit.
A true "perfect storm" is like the one that developed in I believe 1991 off the New England coast. In this case, three storms cane together to make a monster storm. Waves in the Atlantic were as high as 90 feet! Few things survive if caught in such a storm.
In the political world "perfect storms" are also rare. 1932 is a good example of such an event. It wiped clean the political landscape and a new one grew in its place.
I believe such a storm is brewing today. Like 1932, and the real kind in 1991, it will depend on whether all the elements come together.
Element One: The GOP Primary Leader. The Republican party has moved so far right that it has made itself palatable to a dwindling portion of the population. The current front-runner in the GOP Pres. primary is spewing hate against Latinos and Asians which happen to be the fastest growing demos in the country. He has also thrown in women and blacks for good measure. It plays well in the primary, but outside it is fuel on a fire that will only burn hotter as it grows. He also has the ego and money to stay in as long as he wants increasing the damage to the GOP brand, up and down the ticket.
Element Two: The House GOP. They are in disarray. They just kicked out the first speaker in history at midterm without a scandal. They are about to put a man in the speaker's chair who makes G. W. Bush look like an intellectual giant. And they will probably shut down the government in mid December which happens to be the Holliday season. This time it won't be like 2013/14. In '14 there were no consequences to their stupidity, but the main reason was that even though President Obama fought them at the time in '13, few remembered in '14. That is because there wasn't a primary Democrat to highlight it on the national scale for months on end. That will not be the case in '16. Whoever the Dem. nom. is will definitely be doing that and every other Dem. There are enough GOP seats that could be taken in the House to take it back if, and only if, the Democrats can stoke the fires of an angry population.
Element Three: Democratic Populism is alive. A nobody candidate from a nowhere state is running in the Democratic primary. There are no need for links, you can read any website this morning and see Bernie Sanders just pulled in $26 mill in Q3! That is 2 million less than HRC. He has $7 mill CoH less than her. He is swamping her in NH and is even or tied in IA. His national polls are climbing as hers fall. His supporters are different than hers. They believe in a cause. Most of HRC's believe in the candidate, a lot of them are only voting for her because she is not the Republican. This wasn't supposed to happen, but it is happening for the reasons below.
There is an anger in this country. It is on the right. It is on the left. People want the economic and political systems to work for everyday people, even if their definitions of who everyday people might be different. Even though there are different opinions as to the solutions to the problem, a large portion of the country recognizes that the oligarchs and the corporations are sucking this country dry. This anger can be a propellant stronger than rocket fuel. And especially in portions of the Dem electorate, it is buring white hot.
In '08, Obama won because he had fervent supporters, not fans btw, who believed in the message. They were motivated by him AND his message. In reality the message is much more important than the person. If Hillary were to go harder left, and have a clear populist message, she could be the one who could be the third element. Being the first woman POTUS would be part of that message but it alone will not be enough.
However, I don't think she can. Her nature is to be cautious. She wants to not piss off the "middle" "independent". There is no independent voter, but she cannot recognize this. There are leaning voters who are not aligned but they tend to vote for the party they lean to whoever the candidate is. Her mind set is to tied to the corporate world view and her funding to their pockets.
The real way to win is GOTV. Motivation to get people out and vote. That is the way to winning the POTUS, and the House/Senate. I believe that Bernie is better positioned than HRC to get people motivated to vote. And if he wins, and he gets support from Obama, Clinton, and the party, he can get the whole party out to vote regardless of demographics, AND he, just like Obama, can bring in a whole new generation of voters.