Given all the fireworks that erupted during the Democrats’ debate in Michigan over the pointing of fingers and gender based double standards on interrupting your opponent, some of the less breathtaking goodies were overlooked. But a few of Clinton’s comments of a rather inflammatory nature (at least for the general election) were recorded and may come back to haunt her in the fall. Grover Norquist noticed them, however, and he predicts that the former Secretary of State may have just shot herself in the foot in some key swing states. (Yahoo News)

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton lost her chances of becoming president after alienating two key states, anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist said Monday.

“Under her new rules, fracking would exist almost nowhere,” the president and founder of Americans for Tax Reform told CNBC’s ” Squawk on the Street .” “Democrats used to be able to insult the energy industry because they lived in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Alaska [and] they don’t vote Democrat. But she declared war on Pennsylvania and Ohio with that statement. That’s not the way to win the election.”

Clinton said in a debate Sunday in Flint, Michigan, she does not support fracking.

This is only the first of two stumbles identified by Norquist, but it’s a biggie. Being anti-fracking is still a requirement for anyone looking to gain favor with the liberal base, but in key states Clinton needs to win in November it’s a very different situation. One of these is Pennsylvania, which tends to be a case of Lucy and the Football for Republicans these days, but you don’t want to mess with their livelihood. Last summer I wrote a long piece called “A tale of two counties” which examined the effects fracking (or the lack thereof) on communities on each side of the New York – Pennsylvania border. The differences were startling, with economic indicators all across the board soaring in the communities where energy exploration was in full swing and lagging in those where it was banned by the state government. Also, it’s been almost nine months since even the EPA backed off on the majority of their claims about the supposed negative environmental and health effects of the process. Keystone State voters are keenly aware of this and I’m sure the eventual GOP candidate will be reminding them of Clinton’s plans once the general election heats up.

Norquist pointed out one other comment which slipped past Clinton’s lips during the debate.

In the debate against Sen. Bernie Sanders, she said: “I think we have to try everything that works to try to limit the numbers of people and the kinds of people who are given access to firearms.”

Said Norquist: “Hillary Clinton is old enough that she doesn’t know that, since she got involved in politics, 13 million Americans have active concealed weapon permits, 5 percent of the adult population. She announced it was her policy to reduce the number of people who have guns, not bad people; she said ‘people’ who have guns.”

This one should be a no-brainer. Gun control is the mantra of Democrats in deep blue states, but in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania, despite rising support for “universal background checks” the voters strongly support the right to gun ownership. Clinton was going well beyond simple tinkering with background check laws at the debate and she’ll have to answer for that in the general election. This all ties into the running theme I’ve been seeing throughout the Democratic primary. The longer and harder Hillary has to fight against Sanders, the further she’ll be pushed to the left, and the nation is nowhere near ready to follow her off that cliff.