You can make the argument that Hamas' win doesnt' speak well of the Palestinian electorate - but you can also note their choices weren't all that thrilling either.

You can take an optimistic look at the fact that Arafat's Devil-Spawn, the al-Fatah party, apparently is going to peacefully allow the transfer of power. That's a rarity in the region (less Israel).

Democratic sausage-making in action - which could be the basis for some progress. Or not. No telling, yet.

Hamas winning outright also makes them have to *own* the policy of the Government they form - if they had won big, but not big enough, they could probably have compelled the policy anyway, but not been on the hook for the outcomes.

This puts them squarely in the drivers seat. Now to see if they are a rebirth of the Nazi Party, or something rather more useful.

And we won't know the answer to *that* question until they either start WWIII or govern successfully and peacefully transfer power themselves to another party.

Interesting times, indeed. Of course, Bush has nothing to do with it. This is all Clinton-Carter legacy stuff.

For pessimistic looks at it - see Stop the ACLU and SWWBO.