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One more quick point about Obama. Many pundits believe that the Clinton team will work overtime to dig up every sordid detail about him should he run. As Tony Blankley put it in a recent column:

If Hillary Milhous Clinton begins to believe that Sen. Obama is a threat to her inheritance of the White House -- it will not be long before his own mother will not recognize the public image that Hillary's operatives will have drawn of him.

I'm not so convinced this is the case. One thing to keep in mind is that to win the presidency, Hillary Clinton, like all Democrats, will have to count on strong turnout among black voters. If she's seen as using dirty tricks to torpedo the candidacy of a black candidate who is perceived as having a chance to win, it could really turn off a lot of black voters in the general election.

One parallel I can think of is the NY mayoral race of 2001. Mark Green won a bitter primary against Freddy Ferrer, who had a chance to be the first Hispanic mayor. The tactics Green employed during the primary angered many minority voters--and enough of them sat home on election day to help elect Michael Bloomberg.

I'm not saying Clinton can't think of some way to taint Obama's image, but I just think this will complicate her efforts to do so.