Count me among those who fail to understand what Obama is saying when he speaks about Hamas. His latest swipe at Bush and McCain goes like this: “They’re going to have to explain why Hamas now controls Gaza, Hamas that was strengthened because the United States insisted that we should have democratic elections in the Palestinian Authority.”

Um, what? Obama seems to be saying that he opposes Palestinian democracy, since it strengthens radicals. Or perhaps he accepts Natan Sharansky’s critique of the administration, who did not like that fact that it emphasized elections rather than first inculcating democratic norms, such as free speech and press. Obama certainly seems to have forgotten that Hamas’s coup in Gaza was a widely predicted outcome of Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, which Bush had little choice in supporting once Sharon was pushing it. Maybe these are legitimate criticisms of Bush, but unless I’m missing something, they appear to be criticisms from the Right. Do we have any reason to think Obama would have been tougher on Hamas or the Palestinians than Bush?

Maybe this is how he’s trying to fend off the appeasement label: Dance so fast from left to right that you can’t see him any more.