Props To Hillary

I said last night that from the Republican point of view, Obama should be the preferred candidate to go up against McCain, this fall. Hillary has proven to be a stronger candidate than most of us would have imagined, or as I put it:

She is a ruthless, and determined opponent who fights like a cornered animal when the going gets tough.

S. Weasel chimed in (in the comments):

I hate myself for even forming this thought, but I think I’m actually starting to admire Hillary for this display of pugnacious stubbornness.

Hillary is getting some grudging respect others from on the right, this morning, too. Lisa Schiffren at The Corner, and Michael Goldfarb from The Weekly Standard are two conservative pundits who can’t help but admire her pluck.

Lisa Schiffren:

It is clear that Obama can’t win the Reagan Democrats — for reasons that are cultural rather than specifically racial. The consensus on cable is that there will be massive defections of Hillary voters to McCain in November if Obama is the nominee. What is astonishing is that Hillary Clinton can win them. She has transformed her image pretty thoroughly from the Wellesley bluestocking who will tell us all what’s good for us, to a much more down to earth seeming champion of the little guy. (Image. Not policies.)

Michael Goldfarb:

Hillary Clinton’s convincing Pennsylvania victory is the third consecutive back-to-the-wall big-state win she’s managed (following on Ohio and Texas seven weeks ago). She’s done this despite being outspent by Obama, and with most of the Democratic establishment and the media rooting against her. In all, about 16 million people have voted for her so far in this nominating contest. That’s the most votes any presidential candidate has ever gotten in any primary cycle of either party.

So some grudging respect is in order. Some gratitude, too for the favor she’s doing McCain.

Stanley Kurtz is calling her “McCain’s Stalking Horse”:

If Hillary can’t win the nomination—and it’s clearly very, very hard for her—she’s basically a stalking horse for McCain. She’s preparing the demographic ground for McCain, by getting white working-class Democrats used to (if you will) not voting for Obama. And she’s softening Obama up for McCain, prodding at and exposing her fellow Democrats’ weaknesses. The only way she can stop the super-delegates’ drift to Obama is conclusively making the case that she’s more electable. Given the fall-out from Bosnia, on top of her negatives to begin with, she’s probably never going to be strong enough to do that. And as long as Obama just seems sort of weak—but not catastrophically so—I think super-delegates will perversely be more inclined to declare for him quickly. They’ll want to protect him and stop the nomination race before even more of his vulnerabilities become evident.

As fun as this drawn out primary fight has been, I think I’d like to see it wrap up in Obama’s favor quickly myself.

But that does not seem to be in the cards.

Cartoon via Townhall.com Funnies.