And so it begins, First campaign attack ad targets Hillary, and it shows a systemic vulnerability. [View all]

[Savannahmann]

The other day I asked the question about union support for Hillary, and if she could win without it. The answer I got after a half dozen links in the OP was don't worry, the Unions will support her. No proof, no linked announcements. Just have faith that the party will muddle through to the end and it will be alright on the day.

kpete posted a story about Centrist Dems pushing back against the Warren wing of the Democratic Party. This post was interesting IMO because the Centrist Dems were giving up several populist issues by telling the Left to shut up and sit down. Worse, the Centrists announced they were giving up those populist issues.

This evening, I stumbled across this when I got my email up and running. Here's the story. A Pro-Israel group is asking where Hillary is regarding the speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In short, the ad is asking Hillary to come out and make a statement regarding her position on Israel regarding the Iranian nuclear program. This is a trap, an obvious one, but an effective one.

Since Hillary has been Secretary of State, it's assumed that she'd got some serious Foreign Policy experience. So when someone asks a question regarding Foreign Policy, they expect an answer pretty much right away. The NY Times falls into this trap, and sent an email to the Clinton camp asking Hillary's opinion on the ad and if she supports Israel. No response was all that the NY Times got in answer, and that is probably the best answer she could have given.

Gallop has support for Israel at a whopping 64%. That's as high as it has ever been in this particular poll. Now, the ad was put out by the Conservative groups, granted. But this shows a serious weakness in the Democratic party, and how we are positioning ourselves for the 2016 election.

Populist issues are often derided, but the truth is that populist issues have a lot of people behind them, which is why they are referred to as populist. From legalization of Marijuana, to Civil Rights reforms, there are a lot of issues that have popular support. Either pluralities, or outright majorities. So just how many of those populist issues can Democrats eschew and remain serious in the eyes of the public?

Worse, by rejecting the populist issues championed by the left Hillary sets the campaign up as a choice between the RW, and the slightly less RW. As we saw in 2014 when we had lackluster turnout, GOTV works best when we give the people a reason to GOTV. We need to give the people a candidate, a plan, an ideal to vote FOR.

A thirty second ad produced by a Conservative group that supports Israel in perhaps as much as two hours. Released to Youtube, and emailed to the NY Times has struck the mark, and nobody has even announced their intent to become President yet.

No, I'm not suggesting that the election in 2016 will be decided on who supports Israel. I am saying that this is a papercut. A single small insignificant thing by itself. But there is an old saying, the death by a thousand papercuts. A single papercut is insignificant. A thousand would be the death of the candidate on the day. The Democratic Party must embrace those populist issues that are being rejected this early in the campaign. Because without the populist support, all the GOTV efforts in the world won't do a damn thing to help us win.