Hillary won in Indiana last night, but got destroyed in North Carolina and lost any advantages she picked up in Pennsylvania. Tim Russert says the primary is over and the Democrats have their nominee: Barack Obama.

Looking at this from the right, while it would be nice to see the broo-ha-ha of the Democratic primary over, the longer Hillary’s in the race, the more time it gives Republicans to crystallize around John McCain. And the less time it gives Obama to prepare a “we are now united!” speech at the Democratic convention.

Just think what the competition between Hillary and Obama has done for conservatives:

-The emergence of the Jeremiah Wright issue
-Exposing Hillary’s lie about “coming under fire” in Bosnia
-Hibble-dee-gook over Obama’s guns and religion comments
-The re-emergence of the Jeremiah Wright issue; Jeremiah Wright dancing
-McCain got to visit poor places where he might be weak and tell us on the right he plans to nominate conservative judges
-Hillary and Obama both ended up on Fox News

Thanks to Obama v. Hillary, McCain has some real fire power against Obama. Just watching Obama’s victory speech in North Carolina last night, he made a few references to himself being an “imperfect” candidate, trying to address what are widely acknowledged to be his flaws now. Thanks to Hillary not letting go, there are chinks in Obama’s armor.

Of course, McCain has promised a positive campaign and has backed this up by attacking right-wing North Carolina ads that went after Obama. So giving him firepower against Obama might just end up being like giving an iPhone to a caveman. If McCain wants to battle Obama with “I’m okay and you’re okay and everyone’s okay,” against Obama’s counterpunch of “Bush’s third term,” I don’t like his chances.

After all, how is a 71-year-old moderate supposed to invigorate the party?

But as it looks, Hillary is on her last legs, and after Rush Limbaugh’s Operation Chaos*, I can’t help but think Hillary has done a lot for Republicans and maybe conservatives should be sad to see her go.

For all this talk about McCain’s “head start” and ability to unify the party ahead of Obama, his progress can be erased if Obama shows up in Denver with Hillary Clinton in tow – perhaps even as VP candidate. Things would be different if Hillary fought all the way until the convention.

It looks like the general election will see a Pure Liberal against a Moderate Republican. There will probably be a lot of “lesser of two evils” talk in the times ahead.

*By the way, the Chicago Sun-Times released an official Obama team memo about Operation Chaos.