Politico is at it again, deciding that Hillary Clinton will be "haunted" in the general election, should she get the nomination, by six "choice remarks and positions" she's taken in 2015. Because you know, unlike Clinton, the eventual Republican nominee will have never said anything controversial.
They start out by making sure that Third Way gets their say:
"Hillary has kept her powder dry," said Jonathan Cowan, a former Clinton administration official who is the president of the moderate think tank Third Way, "refusing to embrace the most liberal ideas, like more Social Security benefits for all and raising taxes on the middle class. She is wisely avoiding [Mitt] Romney's fatal error of tacking so far towards the base that you win the nomination but lose the general election."
Never mind that raising the payroll tax to do things like the guarantee of paid time off for family leave, or for increasing Social Security benefits is hugely popular, and even tea party Republicans are okay with the payroll tax. Politico and the Third Way aren't going to tell you that. But it's something the Clinton campaign should do a bit of research on. Because even in the general election, Third Way's endorsement wouldn't get her much.
But on to the real meat of the story, which posits that the things Clinton has said and positions she's taken will fuel a potential general election campaign against her. Those issues: on ISIS ("We now finally are where we need to be." Note that the Iraqis just had a pivotal victory against ISIS in Ramadi); on Republicans (the enemy she's most proud of, compared to the kinds of things Republicans have been saying about her and her husband for the past 23 years); on the nothingburger email scandal (her joke about wiping her server "like with a cloth or something"); and her support for closing the gun show loophole and an assault weapons ban.
Also, because the whole electorate cares about charter schools, her shift away from them means "Republicans could seize on her flip-flop." She's also doomed herself with young Hispanics, Politico says, with her really not smart to equate herself as a grandmother with Hispanic grandmothers. Yes, young Hispanic voters will flock to the candidate who wants to deport their grandmothers, and everyone else in the family.
Clinton certainly isn't running a perfect primary campaign and wouldn't be perfect in the general, but the idea that anyone in this Republican field could make hay on any of these things is pretty laughable. This Republican field, full of blowhards and pathological liars. Not that Politico won't do its very best to help.