Washington Post has an insider story of the first and only time Senator’s Obama & McCain worked together. It was early on in the Illinois Senator’s career, McCain saw a potential reformer to join his cause but the relationship quickly fell appart.

I like him; he’s probably got a great future. We can do some work together,” McCain confided to his top staffer.

Instead, what began as a promising collaboration between two men bent on burnishing their reformist credentials collapsed after barely a week. The McCain-Obama relationship came undone amid charges and countercharges, all aired publicly two years ago in an exchange of stark and angry letters. Obama questioned whether McCain sided with GOP leaders rather than searching for a bipartisan solution; McCain accused Obama of “typical rhetorical gloss” and “self interested partisan posturing” by a newcomer seeking to ingratiate himself with party leaders.

“Please be assured I won’t make the same mistake again,” McCain wrote Obama on Feb. 6, 2006.

It is pretty clear how the McCain camp and the Republicans viewed the failure and their recollection of the event gives a wonderful insight into how the election will be framed:

McCain’s backers view it as emblematic of Obama’s ability to talk grand ideas and aspirations, but also of his ultimate failure to produce substantive results. Obama’s supporters contend that the moment was vintage Obama, with the newcomer defusing the feud with a cool demeanor that allowed him to claim the high ground while rolling up his sleeves to eventually help pass a broader ethics overhaul bill in August 2007.