Last week, the Democrats launched their drive toward the midterms by identifying a target even more moribund than themselves: the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign.

Sure, much of the substance of the new “Better Deal” agenda — whether on infrastructure, drug prices, or employer tax credits for job training — was standard Democratic fare, much of it already available at that fabled home of lost causes, unpopular names, and impossible loyalties, www.HillaryClinton.com/Issues.

And sure, in characteristic fashion, Democrats bungled the rollout, leaking an incorrect version of the new slogan that began with a neo-Clintonian nod to “Better Skills.” But once they got in front of the TV cameras, Democratic leaders did their best to make clear they’d conceived the new message in direct opposition to “Love Trumps Hate.”