I was not surprised by Hillary’s victory, or by the margin, for that matter.

As reprehensible as many of her attacks have been, she has demonstrated a resilience throughout the campaign, perhaps nowhere more convincingly than in the debate last week.

In hindsight, all the criticism (justified as it was) of George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson served to mask the obvious fact that Obama got the crap beat out of him that night. Where he was halting and on the defensive, Hillary Clinton was decisive and authoritative. Always disciplined, she started well and ended strong. And remember the question about whether you would disregard the advice of your commanders in Iraq? She crushed that one.

So while many of us were taking ABC to task, the 10 million viewers who watched the debate saw a contrast: a wobbly, tired Obama and a sharp, commanding Clinton. That, plus his unfortunate remarks in San Francisco, set him back on his heels.

Much has been written about whether Obama can take a punch or not.

But what I want to know is whether he can throw one. He’s a lover, not a fighter, and Hillary is betting that the love affair may be wearing off, and that even if a majority of Americans don’t like her or trust her, they believe she can do the job.

Tuesday night, in defeat, Obama did try to get a little tougher, asking whether the same old Democratic Party (read: the Clintons) will bring about the change the country needs or whether it will just maintain the status quo.

In a clear dig at Hillary, he said: “You can’t be a champion of working Americans if you’re funded by lobbyists who drown out their voices.”

He denounced the “distractions, silliness, and tit-for-tat” politics that trivializes the issues that confront us. “We can be a party that says whatever it takes to win,” he said. Or we can be a party that isn’t solely focused on “how to win, but why we should.”

But even in defeat, he was more genteel than Hillary. He congratulated her on her victory and he shushed his supporters who were expressing their disgruntlement at her.

For her part, Clinton stuck the needle in several times. She reiterated her slogan that she will be a “President ready to lead on Day 1,” implying, of course, that he isn’t. She boasted that she’s “ready to take charge as commander in chief,” leaving the not-so-faint echo ringing in our ears that Obama, unlike her and McCain, is not qualified.

She suggested time and again that Obama may not be tough enough for the job. “The Presidency is the toughest job in the world,” she said. “But the pressures of a campaign are nothing compared to the pressures of the White House.”

And she hinted broadly that Obama is all talk. “It’s high time to stop talking about problems and start solving them,” she said.

She had her grace notes, especially about “women in their 90s who were born before women had the right to vote” and long to see a woman President. “Neither Senator Obama nor I nor many of you were fully included” in our founders’ vision, she said. “But we’ve been blessed by men and women in each generation who saw America not as it is, but as it could and should be. The abolitionists and the suffragists, the progressives and the union members, the civil rights leaders, all those who marched, protested, and risked their lives. . . . Because of them I grew up taking for granted that women could vote. Because of them, my daughter grew up taking for granted that children of all colors could attend school together. And because of them and because of you, this next generation will grow up taking for granted that a woman or an African American can be the President of the United States of America.”

But mostly, she talked about being a fighter: She used the word “fight” or “fighter” at least six times. And she talked about getting knocked down but then getting back up again.

Which is where she is today.

P.S. The big dog just got back from the kennel. There was Bill Clinton finally materializing on the election-night stage with Hillary for the first time in ages. It was a signal to the superdelegates that he’s going to come barking.