In an economic address delivered in Michigan this week, Hillary Clinton tore into Donald Trump. No surprise there, of course. But what is notable is precisely what Clinton excoriated her Republican opponent for: Per Hillary, Trump is just too darn negative about the current state of the country.

"My opponent in this election was here in Michigan about a week ago, and it was like he was in a different place," she shouted. "When he visited Detroit on Monday, he talked only of failure, poverty, and crime."

"He's missing so much about what makes Michigan great," she continued. "And the same is true when it comes to our country. He describes America as an embarrassment. He said –and I quote – 'We're becoming a third-world country.' Look around you, my friends. Go visit with the workers building rockets. That doesn't happen in third world countries." (Apparently Clinton has never heard of North Korea.)

In a certain sense, Clinton has the facts on her side. The economy is growing steadily (albeit slowly) and the country is quite close to full employment. Yet there was something off-kilter, even offensive, about Clinton belittling the notions of "crime" and particularly "poverty" in a speech delivered not far from Detroit and Flint, the sites of so much human misery. (As a recent New York Times piece noted, Clinton has essentially ignored the persistence of poverty in the United States throughout her campaign.)

And it was electorally risky as well. Clinton argued that Trump's largely negative diagnosis of the state of the country is just wrong—that he's describing not America at all, but a rather "different place." Unfortunately for the Democratic candidate, however, most voters appear to inhabit that "different place." Large majorities of Americans insist that the country is heading in the wrong direction. If she keeps the Panglossian rhetoric, her candidacy could be headed that way soon, too.