You have to hand it to Hillary Clinton. Her precipitous drop in the Democratic primary polls and the steady drip, drip, drip of superdelegates heading to her competitor has not slowed her down. Slowed her down, that is, in her effort to give John McCain lots of good material to use against Barack Obama in the general election.

Her latest? A new ad, the equivalent of the “3 a.m. ad” on steroids. This one, filled with retired generals and admirals, sets out the argument once again that Obama just isn’t up to the task of being commander-in-chief:

You cannot learn on the job, you have to have a base of experience-a framework of experience

Who do we believe would be the best person to occupy the Oval Office and to answer the red phone, as we said, at 3 o’clock in the morning or three o’clock in the afternoon? We come down on the Sen Hillary’s side of the ledger

I admire charisma, I admire intellect. In a Commander in Chief I want more than that. I want proof. I want a track record.

If, as now appears increasingly likely, Clinton goes down to defeat, there will be ad after ad for McCain constructed out of this type of material. If nothing else, it ensures that the Democratic “dream ticket” is never going to come true.