So, you think that we have problems?

New polls show Hillary Clinton underwater in Iowa, New Hampshire, Colorado and Virginia http://t.co/bfTPXuXr88 pic.twitter.com/6pz70PxZAj

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlakeWP) July 27, 2015

Goodness gracious, but that’s the Democratic Nightmare Scenario right there, huh? Hillary Clinton is still on track to get the nomination in early states… but the populace in general simply Does Not Like Her.  The Washington Post article concluded, with as much hope as it could muster (not much):

We knew that Clinton needed strong support from non-white voters in the general election, a group that has been a larger share of the electorate in recent elections. These recent polls suggest that she may need that support more than we might have anticipated at first.

…but note that ‘larger share of the electorate’ bit. The fundamental question for Democrats coming into this cycle is not whether they can possibly sustain the same African-American voter intensity of 2008 and 2012 in 2016; it’s been for how long that they can keep pretending that there’s even a chance that that would happen. Don’t get me wrong: I understand the necessity of arguing that your ceiling is actually your floor. There’s no point in casually admitting to your own base Look, the Republicans are going to win the Presidential election whatever we do, but we need you to go out there anyway so that we can keep down the losses in Congress.  Particularly if you’re as committed to the mushroom treatment as a lifestyle strategy as the DNC is*. But, of course, understanding the necessity and enabling it are two different things. I’m under no obligation to do the latter.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*No doubt people are sourly muttering in their coffee about how the GOP is just as bad.  Well, at least we have Senators and Congressmen who will actually yell at our own leadership in public.  Find me a Democratic Senator who would have dared called out [mc_name name=’Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’R000146′ ] on Reid’s bovine excrement to the extent that Ted Cruz just called out [mc_name name=’Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’M000355′ ] on McConnell’s. And yes, most of the Senate unloaded on [mc_name name=’Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’C001098′ ] for it… which will have precisely zero bearing on whether or not Ted Cruz does that again. The point is that we actually do have people in Congress now who, as somebody once put it, have gotten in the habit of pulling their heads out of their own rear ends and taking a look around, every now and then. The question has to be, how do we add to their number?