Hillary Clinton's campaign launch video: It's morning in a more diverse America

By Richard K. Barry

James Hohmann at Politico writes that some Republican political operatives were not entirely scathing in their assessment of Hillary Clinton's campaign launch video.

A significant — and surprising — majority of GOP insiders in the early states offered at least some praise for her presidential campaign roll-out in a special Wednesday edition of The POLITICO Caucus, our weekly bipartisan survey of the most important activists, operatives and elected officials in Iowa and New Hampshire.

These are people who will never vote for her, but they have their fingers on the political pulse in the two states that kick off the nominating process. While most Republicans thought the former secretary of state’s announcement was contrived or phony, they nevertheless viewed it as a savvy and effective campaign launch.

Though I have no idea what the words "contrived" and "phony" mean in this context, beside the fact that some Republicans refuse to associate much positive with Hillary Clinton, I think the GOP is more concerned with this video, this approach, than they are letting on.

The conservative movement in America is so much about anger, and hatred and painting Democrats as destroyers of a country that doesn't, in some inexplicable way, belong to them.

But smart politicians understand that most often voters simply want to know where you want to take them, what kind of life you imagine for them and how you can help them get there. Voters tire of the nastiness after a while.

Was the Hillary video a bit of a Hallmark card? Sure, just like Ronald Reagan's iconic "Morning in America" piece was not entirely unlike a coffee commercial. But people like Hallmark cards, and coffee in the morning.

A bunch of people, with significantly different backgrounds, talking about their hopes for the future, which is to the Clinton campaign's point. Make it about the voters, and you might just win an election.