Hillary Clinton just handed Republicans a devastating ad against her? Really, Chris Cillizza? Devastating?

Hillary Clinton had a clear strategy going into Sunday night’s fourth Democratic presidential debate: Hug President Obama — at all costs.

“We have the Affordable Care Act,” Clinton said. “That is one of the greatest accomplishments of President Obama, of the Democratic Party, and of our country.”

“I’m going to defend Dodd-Frank and I’m going to defend President Obama for taking on Wall Street, taking on the financial industry and getting results,” she said.

“I was very pleased that leaders of President Obama’s administration went out to Silicon Valley last week and began exactly this conversation about what we can do, consistent with privacy and security,” she said.

— Hillary Clinton just handed Republicans a devastating ad against her, Chris Cillizza, the Washington Post, today.

Clinton, of course, was pandering, early and (very) often, mainly to African Americans—whom she made clear especially in her ridiculous assertion, stated at least twice last night, that Sanders in 2011 wanted a primary challenge to Obama’s reelection but in other respects as well, that blacks are deeply offended by any criticism of Obama.

Sanders, like me and many other progressives, was livid at Obama’s handling of the Republicans’ debt-ceiling shakedown.  All Sanders needs to do is remind people of, say, budget sequestration and its specific effects.  And (as he does regularly and did last night) of Obama’s Justice Department’s failure to indict any human major player in the finance industry’s financial frauds connected to the industry’s teetering on the brink of collapse in 2008.

I kept wondering as I watched the debate last night whether significant numbers of African Americans would find the brazenness of her pandering offensive.

But, really.  I know that the Republican establishment candidates—those who are so, openly, and those who try hard to hide it—think that most Americans think the finance and securities industry is too lightly regulated.  After all, that’s what their donors think; why wouldn’t ordinary folk think so, too?

But apparently ordinary folk don’t. Thus, the awesome poll numbers for Jeb! And Marco! And Christie!

Yup. Positively devastating to a Clinton general-election campaign that she defends Dodd-Frank.  And Obamacare. Because the healthcare system and the financial services industries were just awesome circa 2008-09 for those who aren’t mega-donors to Republican politicians.

I’ve hardly been quiet here at AB about my lack of fondness for Clinton, including in posts earlier today and just before the debate last night.  But some of the criticism of her is ridiculous.