Senator Hillary Clinton’s strategy to align with John McCain will backfire by diminishing McCain and elevating Obama to the presidency. Senator Clinton is diminishing McCain and elevating Obama in the following ways.

First, Clinton has put McCain in an intolerable position by asserting that only she and McCain have the national security experience to be US commander in chief, whereas Obama does not. If McCain agrees with Clinton, he will be seen as an ally of Clinton, which will cost him the support of independent as well as conservative republican voters in the general election. On the other hand, if McCain pronounces Obama as qualified to be commander in chief, McCain himself will not be able to use the lack of qualifications argument against Obama in the general election. In this sense, Clinton is misplaying the national security disqualification card and depriving McCain of the use of this weapon against Obama.

Second, Senator Clinton’s embrace of McCain appears to be an act of desperation in her losing campaign. In this scenario, Clinton would go down and would drag down Senator McCain as well.

Third, Senator Clinton is elevating Obama by creating a perception that he is an outsider who is the genuine agent of change. Clinton and McCain are seen as insiders who are wedded to the status quo in Washington and to Bush’s failing policies.

Clinton is providing Obama with a golden opportunity to challenge the Clinton-McCain-Bush stay the course strategy. The problem with the Clinton-McCain-Bush stay the course strategy in foreign affairs is that the Kurdish radicals (the PKK) are destabilizing Iraq; the Iranians – who are aligned with the Kurds -- are also destroying Iraq; while Hugo Chavez is destabilizing Latin America.

In sum, ignore the general election, which is irrelevant. The contest for president will be decided exclusively within the Democratic Party primaries, where Senator Clinton is a stand-in for McCain, and where Obama will prevail thanks to Hillary’s mistakes.