McCain's Biggest Asset

So the big talk in politics today is all about Hillary Clinton's speech last night at the DNC convention, and the question of the impact it will have on the November election. Did it fully throw her support to Obama, bolster McCain, or just stay even? While Clinton may have appeared to fully throw her support (and supporters) to Obama, some believe that her convention role will ultimately end up keeping her supporters from backing him. As John Dickerson of Slate stated:

But there was one big flaw in the pitch: Clinton never made the case that Barack Obama was ready to lead as commander in chief.

Consider this: McCain ran the following ad last week using Hillary's own words against Obama:



The video shows Hillary's "3:00 AM" ad and her assertion that McCain would be better prepared as President than Obama. After the ad ran Clinton had to rebuke McCain's ads and say

I'm Hillary Clinton, and I do not approve that message

Yet after all that, she didn't think to state that Obama was ready to serve last night in her convention speech? Maybe we should look at things from her perspective. Consider what happens if Obama wins the 2008 election. That puts the next possible year for Clinton to run for the Presidency again at 2016, when she'll be 69, as Obama will get the 2012 run as the incumbent candidate. But what if Hillary can throw her supporters to McCain, who was long considered a "maverick" by the Democrats before he was running for the Presidency? For proof, check out these clips:



It wouldn't be unthinkable for her supporters to flock to him, and Obama's loss in this election cycle would make her the imminent front runner for the 2012 election, when she would still be relevant and would have spent the past 4 years gaining support. Of course Clinton can't blatantly advocate this path, but some of her supporters are clearly not on the Obama bandwagon after last night:



Now it just remains to be seen whether or not Hillary's supporters figure out that a vote for McCain in 2008 means a vote for Clinton in 2012. You can bet she's hoping they do.