I watched President Obama as he held a news conference yesterday to announce his plan to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  As I listened to the president and his list of long proven false-to-fact reasons for closing the facility, I couldn't help but wonder what the effect of this is going to be on Hillary Clinton's campaign.  Later, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton answered me by abandoning national security-minded Democrats and supporting Obama's ill-advised decision.

President Obama continues to insist that the facility at Guantanamo Bay is a recruiting tool for ISIS, al-Qaeda, and other terrorist groups.  Although I have heard a (very) few senior military officers reiterate the president's claims, I have yet to hear one cite a single case where an ISIS or al-Qaeda fighter claims to have joined the cause simply because of our detention facility.  I haven't even heard of an instance where it was the tipping point for such a potential recruit who had heretofore been on the fence about it.  It's a bogus argument, and the president knows it, and the senior officers, who are supposed to be apolitical, know it.

President Obama also claims that closing Guantanamo will enhance our security.  His plan says we will release some prisoners to countries who will take them.  Others we will transfer to a yet to be decided facility in the United States.  How this would enhance our security, I cannot imagine, especially given the 30%-plus recidivism rate among already released former prisoners.

While junior, mid-grade, and most senior military officers understand the above, some other folks who also get it are ordinary rank-and-file union workers, a core Clinton constituency.  Some of them live in Boston and New York, both previously attacked by terrorists – in the case of New York, multiple times.  Many have served in uniform, and they know that this move by President Obama will not enhance our national security.  These are the Reagan Democrats who, despite some political differences with Republicans, are still very patriotic and hold no truck with politicians sacrificing our national security on the altar of leftist ideals or to fulfill some personal legacy.

President Obama and Mrs. Clinton have made a huge unforced error, one that Republicans should take immediate advantage of.  Her support for the president on this issue risks weakening her support from the Reagan Democrats above.  These are the folks she will need to rely upon to knock on doors and make telephone calls in the general election.  The one thing the Republican field should not allow is for Hillary Clinton, with or without the connivance of the press, not to be held accountable for her stance on this issue.  They need to call her on this, early and often, and thus separate her from this important constituency.