Unifying the party

Leave it to Shrub to bring Obama and Clinton together. In the 24 hours since Bush's disgusting comments comparing Obama to Nazi appeasers (in the Knesset, of all places), Clinton and her supporters have come out in defense of her opponent. Yesterday Clinton said the comments were "offensive and outrageous."And this morning, James Rubin, an assistant secretary of state in the Clinton administration, has an op-ed in the Washington Post blasting McCain as a hypocrite for agreeing with Bush's remarks. From the op-ed:

McCain, meanwhile, is guilty of hypocrisy. I am a supporter of Hillary Clinton and believe that she was right to say, about McCain's statement on Hamas, "I don't think that anybody should take that seriously." Unfortunately, the Republicans know that some people will. That's why they say such things.

But given his own position on Hamas, McCain is the last politician who should be attacking Obama. Two years ago, just after Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections, I interviewed McCain for the British network Sky News's "World News Tonight" program. Here is the crucial part of our exchange:

I asked: "Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?"

McCain answered: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."

The interview Rubin referred to can be seen here.

This all brings me back to the political fallout of Bush's and McCain's comments. Obviously they weren't a mistake. Bush is a brilliant politician and he knows the reaction his comments would generate. There's a chance that Obama, Clinton, Rubin, et al are falling right into the Republican trap. But I think the blow back from the comments may be stronger than Bush-McCain had intended.

Democrats can unify around their hatred for Bush more than anything. After a 15-month campaign, which has gotten uglier by the day and seemingly has no end, finding common ground around Bush's comments will be what ends the campaign and brings Democrats back together.