Jeff Zelany writes about the brewing Senator Clinton / Senator Obama feud spilling over into their Senate lives. He reports their formerly friendly relationship cooled around the time Obama started musing about running:

Many Senate observers, even those close to Mrs. Clinton, say they believe she set the less-than-collegial tone. But Mr. Obama offered a glimpse into his own competitiveness two years ago when a Chicago television reporter who had come to Washington to interview Mr. Obama informed him that he had snagged a hallway interview with Mrs. Clinton.

“I outpoll her in Illinois,” Mr. Obama said. After realizing his remark had been overheard, he said: “That was a joke!”

I have to be honest here, I don’t entirely buy the Obama/Clinton feud. I believe its a lot of hype built up in the media to sell headlines and fill up cable slots. I also think both candidates are calculating enough to have planned this out months ago. I don’t doubt they both have their “game faces on” and that they are ready to take the other out to win, but the rest of it I think is just filler made up in the minds of observers.

To believe this story you also have to believe that in the middle of all this “not talking” Obama & Clinton both magically appeared as the last voters on an Iraq spending bill in order to take a position they could sell to the left while guaranteeing the bill passed. That just happened to transpire where they both walked out in a pretty coordinated manner to vote?