Clever and overdue if he’s going to persist with this line of attack, which remains an open question given his bizarre shifting rhetoric about it. But now that Her Majesty’s been redeemed as a good Democratic soldier and the new feminist pope, let’s do mention the fact that she had no qualms jumping on this subject when Stephanopoulos brought it up at the debate in April. True to Clintonian form, she pawned it off on Republicans by saying that the issue had to be addressed then because it would surely be addressed later in the general election, but watch the video of the exchange and relish how she supplies a few inconvenient details about The One’s working relationship with Ayers that he magically “forgot” in his own answer. If the media’s going to demagogue McCain as a racist for broaching this subject, by all means, bring Hillary and her Absolute Moral Authority along on the trip.

And judging from some of the related attacks floating around now, that’s going to be some trip. Click the image to watch.

Update: Here’s the full transcript. This didn’t make the video preview but it should have:

GIBSON: You didn’t raise that, this argument, this argument, or line of argument, at the debate the other night. And I asked Sen. Obama about that yesterday. He said yeah, I’m surprised that John didn’t say that to my face.

MCCAIN: Again, two things I’ve never been accused of lacking. And one is passion, and the other is courage. I mean, I can accept a lot of the other criticisms. It didn’t come up in the flow of the conversation.