Hillary can Help

How can Hillary Clinton drop out now and endorse Obama?  After the way she has campaigned what is that going to look like?  Won't the press open up with a barrage of her own words that seem to undermine Obama in comparison to John McCain?  Won't they try to portray her endorsement as hollow and leave room for her supporters to interpret it as disengenuous?

Yes they will.  And yes, she'll be able to handle it to our advantage if she wants.

The basic thrust of the McCain attack on Obama has, so far, been pretty much parallel to Hillary's.  Obama is too young and inexperienced.  Three am is scary and think of the children and all that.  They will push that on Hillary in an effort to bolster McCain's case.

But I can see the whole thing fitting beautifully with Hillary's basic schtick on the stump.  It's a sardonic point she makes.  

'You can't tell me Barack Obama isn't tough enough!'  

The fact that she's the one endorsing him and not the other way around just says it all.  You can point to the fact that she hammered him on this or that and all she has to do is point to the fact that it didn't work.  

Everyone knows they threw the kitchen sink at him.  She only needs to reference it obliquely, even in the form of a joke.  It allows her to bolster her own image even as she helps the ticket.  

"If even I couldn't knock this kid down, John McCain better watch his ass."  

Not that she uses those words but this is the kind of posture that will both bolster Obama with the electorate and help mend fences within the party.