By ROGER J. STONE JR.

I come to praise Hillary, not to bury her. I am a vocal critic of Senator Clinton but I must admit she has demonstrated true grit and Nixonian-like tenacity in the face of adversity. She has soldiered on cheerfully in the face of growing odds against her. She has improved as a speaker and campaigner. She has faced down ridicule in the wake of her own atrocious lies about Bosnian sniper fire. She has put close to $10 million of her own money into her campaign. She did it all with good-natured grace.

Saddled with a Chief Strategist Mark Penn, who looks like a wax-pear that sat on a radiator too long and hasn't a clue about how to get a President elected, Hillary has soldiered on as her campaign made mistake after mistake. Penn's failure to compete in Caucus States with proportional Delegates splits will cost her the nomination.

But, absent Barack Obama stepping on a land-mine, she cannot be nominated. She has, by her performance as a candidate and her close wins in key States, earned another shot at the nomination. She should embrace defeat at the Convention and return to the Senate. She should avoid running for a leadership position. She should campaign sparingly for Obama while claiming otherwise (the Gore treatment).

If Obama is defeated in 2008, she should let New York Democrats draft her for Governor in 2010 when David Paterson ends his term and chooses not to run in the face of bad poll numbers and lack of cash. She can appoint David Paterson to the Senate seat which she will vacate after being sworn in as Governor. The Governorship provides both executive experience and a fulcrum for raising the money for a 2012 run.

At least this year's Presidential contest features a real contest for the Democratic nomination that will go to the Convention. The last time in recent history that the country had such a contest was in 1976 when former Governor Reagan challenged President Gerald Ford.

While I am immensely proud of my role in helping elect Ronald Reagan President in 1980, it is experience in the lonely 1976 Reagan campaign that marks one as a true "Reaganite." Many forget how close Reagan came to toppling Ford and how unified the Republican Party establishment was against Reagan, with conservative icons like Barry Goldwater, John Tower and Strom Thurmond supporting Ford.

Reagan's '76 campaign was a 'smoke and mirrors' political miracle backed by an army of true believers who came of political age with Goldwater and thought that political parties should stand for something.

Craig Shirley has written a splendid account of Reagan's 1976 venture pitting the ex-governor's enormous talents and fervent beliefs against the White House and the party machinery; Shirley is well qualified to write this story as he is himself a life long conservative activist and the official (and unofficial) PR man for many conservative causes and battles. Shirley's key understanding of the American Presidential nominating system and his understanding of the byzantine workings of the fledging conservative movement make this the definitive account of Ronald Reagan's warm-up run that helped propel him to the Presidency.

Now comes word that Shirley, with unique access to Reagan insiders who remain, and hours of interviews with Reagan advisors like Michael Deaver and Lyn Nofziger, will soon unveil what I expect to be the definitive book on Reagan's historic 1980 victory that ultimately sparked the greatest peace-time expansion of the economy up to that time in history.

Reporters, political junkies, historians and Reaganites are waiting with bated-breath for what is really volume two of Craig Shirley's savvy narrative. I for one, cannot wait.

As dirty tricks go, the Mickey Kantor scam perpetrated on the Clinton camp by someone who is obviously for Barack Obama, has it all; racial hatred, audio, arguable unintelligible voices and no traceability. It's a masterpiece, a classic. By sending everyone running to review the audio of the war-room it made fools of hundreds of journalists. It also served to remind how dated the act of my friend, James Carville has gotten. (Disclaimer - Carville is a friend and I like him)

For some reason cigars and cigar smokers are inexorably linked with politics and politicians in the publics mind. The image of the cigar-chomping political boss is an American stereo type is as old as Boss Tweed, George Washington Plunkitt, Richard Daley, Frank Hague and Carmine DeSapio.

JFK was a cigar smoker and with inside knowledge of the coming blockade of Cuba, had his press Secretary, Pierre Salinger, stock up on the finest large-ring Cuban cigars. Vice President Walter Mondale enjoyed a cigar after a long day campaigning as did Senator Ed Muskie. The Reverend Al Sharpton is known to savor a good cigar - usually paid for by someone else. After Pennsylvania Hillary may take up cigars if she thinks it will help her squeeze out a few more white male votes.

For those visiting South Florida, there is no finer cigar emporium than Ultimate Cigar which is located at 195-C North Federal Hwy in Ft. Lauderdale. The proprietor denies that he ever worked for the secret police in Pakistan.