Mr. Dodd points to 2004, when Howard Dean seemed like an inevitable Democratic nominee.

The delegate count was virtually tied, but Clinton's surprising third-place finish in the popular vote damaged her image as the "inevitable" nominee.

That person would be viewed, perhaps, as the inevitable nominee.

Until this spring, Ms. Swift seemed the inevitable Republican nominee.

Casting Gore as the inevitable nominee had worked at first.

Romney secured more than half of the delegates available on Super Tuesday but did not secure his status as the inevitable nominee.

Romney is not yet the inevitable nominee.

Dole may well have been the inevitable nominee, but whatever ends up happening always looks inevitable in retrospect.

The G.O.P. is a party in the throes of a crisis of confidence over its inevitable nominee.

(By contrast, Hillary Clinton was often called the inevitable nominee.)