With Wounds This Fresh …

Tomorrow, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama make it official — they’re a team. Their epic battle lasted 17 months, not to mention how much sooner than that a rivalry was building as presidential campaigns were plotted. They will meet for the first time in a small town named Unity in New Hampshire, where Hillary upset the surging Barack on Jan. 8. It’s a state that also happens to practically be a second home to John McCain. In Unity, both Clinton and Obama received exactly 107 votes — kinda sweet, in a painful way. Yet the outcome there clearly foretold what would become the closest primary race in history, a near-draw.

With tensions running high, what can we expect in Unity tomorrow? How nice the two former foes will be, and how many compliments will spill forth, is not in doubt — they will be gushing. She needs her debts paid off, he needs her voters — all 18 million among critical groups of Latinos, seniors, Jews, women and the working-class voters, famously dubbed Reagan Democrats, whom McCain wants desperately.

But as they embark upon a new partnership, what lies ahead for Clinton and Obama? The lingering questions are numerous, and I listed them in my column this week. How can they repair the damage from a bitter contest packed with charges of racism and sexism ? How can the forgetting and forgiving have happened when the race ended three weeks ago?

So many questions.

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IS OBAMA TRULY AHEAD OF MCCAIN, AS ALL THESE NEW POLLS SHOW? ASK A.B. returns Monday, June 30. Please join my weekly video Q & A be sending your questions and comments to askab@digital-staging.thehill.com. Thank you.