Posted by Jed Lewison on Tue Aug 26, 2008 at 4:32 PM Pacific

Playing the player

Over the past few days, the McCain campaign has helped to dramatically boost interest in Hillary Clinton's speech tonight.

I'll give them credit for driving a message forward by once again using their patented "video press release disguised as an ad" tactic, but in the end, I think they've fallen into a trap.

The reason is simple: by building expectations for party disunity, they've actually increased the likelihood that Hillary Clinton will deliver a blistering critique of John McCain tonight. Even worse (from their perspective), by placing Hillary Clinton on a pedestal, they've not only given her attacks more credibility, they've put themselves in a terrible position to counterattack.

I haven't seen Hillary's speech, and I don't have any insider knowledge, but I'll be blown away if by the end of the night, we're not thinking: "Wow, that was an exceptional speech."

As I write this post, I'm listening to Ed Rendell just rip John McCain a new one on energy policy, and talking about why we need Barack Obama as president. He's doing what Nancy Pelosi did yesterday, only more effectively. It's red meat.  Between Rendell's speech and the various signals given off by the Clinton inner circle, I think we can be confident that we'll be listening to a barn burner tonight. I'm looking forward to it.

Update: At least on MSNBC, the CW seems to be turning as news spreads that Clinton's speech will be a complete demonstration of unity with Barack Obama.