Clinton’s strong debate is general warning to GOP

By JULIE PACE

AP White House Correspondent

washington

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s polished performance in the first Democratic debate did more than send a message to her primary rivals. It was a warning to the chaotic Republican field about her likely strength in a general election.

Clinton solidified her shift toward more-liberal positions on trade, gun control and immigration, but still stayed largely in step with the battleground-state voters she’ll need in November 2016. She also positioned herself as heir to the coalition of women, Hispanics and black voters that propelled Barack Obama to the White House, and she potentially held off a late challenge from Vice President Joe Biden.

“I’m a progressive,” she declared before a television audience of more than 15 million people. “But I’m a progressive who likes to get things done.”

The Republicans’ raucous first two debates, meanwhile, exposed the party’s deep divisions and the pressure on GOP candidates to appease conservative primary voters. That could again leave the eventual nominee scrambling to recalibrate on issues including immigration and women’s health in order to win over a national electorate that is more racially and ideologically diverse than primary voters.

It’s a familiar conundrum for the party, yet one potentially deepened by the rise of Donald Trump and Ben Carson, candidates whose inflammatory comments seem to only boost their standing in the primary. Candidates who are favored by more-traditional Republicans, such as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, risk being associated with the rhetoric of their rivals – or never find a way to overtake them.

The GOP contenders scrambled Wednesday to blunt the notion that Clinton has positioned herself as a general-election force. Rubio said Clinton was locked in “a race to the left to see who could be the most radically liberal, the most big-government.” And Bush cast Clinton as the beneficiary of a Democratic field that sidestepped confrontations over her private email use, a controversy that has dogged her campaign for months.

“I would have taken her to task for that,” Bush told Fox News. “If she wins the nomination and I win the nomination, trust me, this is not going to end.”

Clinton aides insist the former secretary of state isn’t taking the Democratic nomination for granted. Though her strong debate performance may have hardened her standing as the party’s front-runner, she still faces tough competition from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent and self-proclaimed democratic socialist.

Yet Clinton left no doubt that she’s setting her sights on the GOP field.

“I can take the fight to the Republicans, because we cannot afford a Republican to succeed Barack Obama as president of the United States,” she said. She referenced Republicans a dozen times during the two-hour debate, even putting the party alongside the Iranians and National Rifle Association on a list of enemies she was proud to have made.

Republicans argue that Clinton still has vulnerabilities that would hurt her in the general election, including shifts to the left on major issues.

Democratic strategists, however, argue that what once were viewed as liberal policies are increasingly becoming mainstream. Public polling supports that assertion on some issues.

On immigration, a CBS News/New York Times poll last month showed 58 percent of Americans said people living in the U.S. illegally should be allowed to stay and apply for citizenship, a position Clinton supports.

On gun control, Americans overwhelmingly support expanding background checks for ownership, a proposal Clinton touted in the debate. A Pew Research Center poll from July showed 85 percent – including 87 percent of respondents in gun-owning households – support broader background checks.

Majorities of Americans also support government efforts to combat climate change, and they approve of gay marriage, positions backed by Clinton and other Democratic presidential candidates.