Washington Free Beacon managing editor Aaron MacLean made a pair of appearances on Fox & Friends First Thursday morning to discuss the state of the 2016 race and the Democratic National Convention.
Although fellow panelist and Democratic strategist Krystal Ball parroted the optimistic tone struck by President Obama and other speakers at Wednesday's festivities, MacLean expressed derision for the idea of Hillary Clinton being a "change-maker" while running as Obama's third term.
"Isn't change-maker a wonderful, sort of nonsense term? It's right up there with 'thought leader' for me," he said. "This is a perennial problem for the Democratic Party. They always want to see themselves as the agents of change, even when they are, in fact, in charge."
MacLean called it a "convenient" argument that Clinton and the Democrats can blame Republican intransigence for any problems. Ball said Obama was not a "magician" and claimed that most people in the country would view his administration as success.
MacLean added the Clinton team should be worried about the state of the election, given Trump's lead in recent polls.
"Hillary will probably see a bounce out of this convention herself," he said. "But if she goes back to where she was, two, three points ahead nationally, that is not a great place to be ... It's not a great place to be in a change year, an anti-establishment year."
In a later segment, MacLean addressed Obama's speech endorsing Clinton and trumpeting his own legacy. In terms of getting out the Democratic vote, MacLean said Obama was effective and made for a positive association with Clinton. From their perspective, he argued, the grave problems facing the country like slow growth in the economy and racial discord could always be blamed on the GOP.
"From their perspective, none of that is the fault of Obama and his administration, because their progressive policies have been the right ones," he said. "It's the fault of conservative resistance, right? So a big theme of Obama's speech last was the passing of this progressive baton to Hillary."
The segments also marked an MSNBC reunion. Abby Huntsman, now one of Fox & Friends First's co-anchors, and Ball used to be co-hosts on The Cycle, which was canceled in 2015.