THERE, SHE USED THE WORDS – AT 11:14 A.M. ET:  Until yesterday Slick Hilly went along with the Obama line and refused to use the words "radical Islamism."  Suddenly that has changed.  The internal polling probably went sour.  From The Hill:

Revealing her more hawkish side, Hillary Clinton on Monday made a significant pivot by using the term “radical Islamism” to describe the terror threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Clinton, after coming under criticism from Donald Trump, said she was “happy to say either” radical jihadism — a term she has used before — or radical Islamism to describe terrorist groups.

“I think they mean the same thing,” Clinton said, adding that from her perspective, “It matters what we do more than what we say.”

The fight over the term took on a new dimension after a gunman killed 49 people at an Orlando, Fla., nightclub early Sundaymorning. The man pledged allegiance to ISIS during the attack, underlining the threat to the homeland from homegrown terrorism inspired by the foreign group.

Democratic strategists said Clinton’s choice of words represented a significant alteration to her message, and Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, immediately took credit for it.

COMMENT:  Clinton has secured the nomination.  The hard-left Sanders people won't like the change in vocabulary, but there's little they can do about it.  It's the great political center where the election will be won, and Clinton is polling poorly among independents. 

Clinton must be calculating that another attack will come during the campaign.  The public will become more hawkish, and, indeed, she is regarded as much more hawkish than the administration she served as secretary of state.  I'm sure she also sees the possibility of picking up moderate Republicans who are turned off by Donald Trump, and that can make a difference in a close race. 

June 14, 2016