Clinton-Obama Tensions

In his Web column today, Jeff Zeleny writes that for Hillary Rodham
Clinton and Barack Obama, the genteel decorum of the Senate has given
way to the go-for-the-jugular instinct of the campaign trail:

It wasn’t always this way.

When Mr. Obama was running for the Senate, Mrs. Clinton waited out a
lightning storm on a tarmac to fly to Chicago for a fundraiser on his
behalf. After he arrived in Washington in 2005, he studied her first
year in office and worked to keep a similarly studious – yet low
– profile. After Hurricane Katrina, he joined Mrs. Clinton and
former President Bill Clinton as they visited storm evacuees in
Houston, with Mr. Obama walking a few paces behind out of deference to
the leading names of the Democratic Party.

The relationship began to change, according to several Democrats who
are friendly to both senators, when Mr. Obama began musing aloud about
a presidential bid. The day he opened his exploratory committee,
several Senate observers said, he extended his hand and said hello on
the Senate floor. She breezed by him, offering a cool stare. Go to Column