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Thursday’s eleven hour Benghazi hearing marathon was a political victory for Hillary Clinton. While Trey Gowdy and House Republicans had hoped to embarrass Clinton in front of the committee, it was House Republicans who ended up getting humiliated.

The magnitude of the House GOP’s failure was best demonstrated not by how poorly liberals and the mainstream media judged their performance, but rather by the fact that even conservatives admitted that Clinton got the best of the committee.

Republicans were so out of their league, that conservative pundits had no way to spin the hearings as anything but a disaster for the House GOP. Red State’s Erick Erikson lamented that the hearings were a waste of time, having watched his party dance around the ring with Hillary for 11 hours without so much as landing a single significant punch.

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The Washington Examiner‘s Byron York called the hearings a bust, recognizing that Clinton emerged the undisputed victor. York noted:

There’s a reason Benghazi Committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy offered Hillary Clinton the chance to testify in a private, closed hearing. And there’s a reason Clinton wanted to appear in an open setting, with the whole world watching.

York acknowledged that House Republicans were no match for Clinton.

However, it was Commentary magazine editor John Podhoretz’s tweet that best encapsulated conservative frustration with the hearings. In response to Kansas Congressman Mike Pompeo’s grilling of Clinton, Podhoretz tweeted:

Why doesn’t Pompeo just go over and swear her in for president now—if he goes on like this, he’ll practically get her elected.

While Podhoretz’s tweet might have appeared melodramatic at first blush, he had a valid point. For all their efforts to derail Clinton’s candidacy, the Republicans instead handed her a gift.

They decided to share the stage with Hillary Clinton by conducting a public hearing. The hearing gave Clinton an opportunity to demonstrate that she had the poise, temperament and intelligence to lead the country as president. By comparison, House Republicans looked petty, obsessive, and intellectually challenged. Despite their efforts to bring down Hillary Clinton, House Republicans are instead paving her path to the White House.