At The American Conservative, Scott McConnell tells us the political class is shocked, astounded and dismayed by the ascension of Donald Trump to the position of presumptive nominee in the GOP presidential primary. McConnell writes that many GOP hawks could defect to the Clinton campaign.
Republican talking heads are already speculating about the looming defection of GOP foreign policy hawks to the Hillary campaign, and the formation of some sort of Neocons for Hillary group is as inevitable as eventual rain showers. It is a genuinely curious thing that Clinton will run to the right of Trump on foreign policy. This could be a potential advantage for Trump, but it is far from clear that Trump will figure out how to make it so. His foreign policy talk last week showed he was still trying to figure out how to appeal to national security hawks while pushing for a less interventionist, more America First, foreign policy. But even some variant of the Obama-Kerry foreign policy would be better for America than the reflexive hawkishness Clinton represents.
Trump claims, without a great deal of tangible evidence, to have been an early Iraq War opponent. Hillary, of course, supported the war. It can only help Trump in the general election to draw out this distinction, and pound away at its continuing relevance.
Sen. Rand Paul made this point months ago:
