Well it looks like it has happened officially. Hillary is being embraced by The Weekly Standard as one of their very own.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/...
The article praises her Margaret Thacher toughness, her new found voice, her channeling of her Republican father. It even suggests that she may be more conservative than McCain.
If this weren't enough to make right-wing hearts flutter, Hillary has another brand-new advantage: She is hated on all the right fronts. The snots and the snark-mongers now all despise her, along with the trendies, the glitzies; the food, drama, and lifestyle critics, the beautiful people (and those who would join them), the Style sections of all the big papers; the slick magazines; the above-it-all pundits, who have looked down for years on the Republicans and on the poor fools who elect them, and now sneer even harder at her. The New York Times is having hysterics about her. At the New Republic, Jonathan Chait (who inspired the word "Chaitred" for his pioneer work on Bush hatred) has transferred his loathing of the 43rd president intact and still shining to her.
The article goes on to quote The National Review that Hillary has managed to bring the Right Wing's agenda into the Democratic Party and may win in the General by running to the Right of McCain.
In the right-wing conspiracy, this adaptation has not gone unobserved. "Hillary has shown a Nixonian resilience and she's morphing into Scoop Jackson," runs one post on National Review's blog, The Corner:
She's entering the culture war as a general. All of this has made her a far more formidable general election candidate. She's fighting the left and she's capturing the center. She's denounced MoveOn.org. She's become the Lieberman of the Democratic Party. The left hates her and treats her like Lieberman. . . . Obama is distancing himself from Wright and Hillary is getting in touch with O'Reilly. The culture war has come to the Democratic Party.
She might run to the right of McCain, if she makes it to the general election, and get the votes of rebellious conservatives.
And all of you progressives thought you were imagining things. No, now it has been confirmed. Maybe McCain should chose Hillary as a running mate if she does not get the Democratic nomination. Is it conceivable that this is in fact her preferred fall back position and not making sure Obama is defeated in 2008 so she has another shot in 2012? And could it be that this would in fact be the Dream Ticket for the Republican Party? Just think Bush III combined with Nixon. Can it get any better than that? It would be the unbeatable combination.
The question is would that be good or bad for the Democratic Party? Would Hillaryistas follow her into the arms of the Republican embrace and if so which portion of her base would go with her? All her women supporters? Only her over age 65 supporters? Only those with only a High School education? Only the racists? All the Reagan Democrats? There really should be room for 2 polls on this one.