In my view, Third Way politics is on the way out. The old Clinton strategy of triangulation is no longer feasible. The Clinton's are pragmatic, and they inherently want to remain in power and have a strong legacy. In order to get that, they must maintain a good working relationship with the Democratic base.
Hillary has already been badly burned once on her warmongering ways. It is what cost her the primaries in 2008. Obama clearly wants to be more hawkish than he currently is, but he is held in check by the base. For example, he wanted to invade Syria. However, when he realized there was no real support for it among the base, he waffled on his red line comments and attempted to throw the issue to Congress (where it was certain to die). All of this is on top of the fact that even the Republican base is largely now anti-war as well. The American people's will is clear: no more wars. The best they can do is use drones and operate along the edges but they cannot do a full scale invasion.
Hillary has a bit more flexibility on other policies, but she is now fully aware that there is a sizable chunk of the party that is untrusting of her and does not believe that she is liberal enough. These consist primarily of two groups: liberal college educated whites and millennials. Millennials are the largest generation in America--out numbering Boomers--and on the issues we are frequently to the left of Hillary, and sometimes even Bernie Sanders. We are the future of the Democratic Party, and each passing year our numbers and influence grows. Thus, demographically, in order to appeal to millennials the Democratic Party will move further and further to the left.
If Hillary does anything stupid or crazy there is a good chance she could face a primary challenge from the left in 2020. Thus, there is a huge incentive for her to play ball with us.
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