One key Obama player is apparently onboard: Michelle Obama, a vice president of the University of Chicago hospital system and the senator’s wife. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, engineer of a “Draft Obama” effort, says he saw Michelle recently and got a “much more positive response than I expected” to a possible candidacy. “She wasn’t 100 percent but was moving in the right direction.” Another source close to the senator (speaking anonymously because the campaign is not officially underway) was more emphatic: “She’s down for whatever he decides. She has asked the tough questions on how all of this would change their lives. There are no yellow flags and certainly no red flags.”
Clinton partisans aren’t attacking Obama publicly yet, but they’ve begun speaking in code about how important it is to have a president who is experienced, well traveled and battle-tested. Sharper jabs are likely on the way. “You may hear some Hillary people saying things like, ‘Just a little while ago he was in Springfield worrying about license-tag fees’,” says a Hillary person saying just that, though not willing to do so publicly. But they may lay off an Obama real-estate deal with a shady Chicagoan. “I’m not sure the Clintons are in any position to point fingers on land deals,” says the Obama source, referring to the Whitewater story of the 1990s.
Many veterans of the Clinton administration will stay in “Hillaryland”–but not all. According to The Washington Post, “Don’t tell mama [Hillary], I’m for Obama” is the line du jour for defectors who won’t let their names be used until the Illinois senator decides. Others are ready to take the plunge. “After seven years of the ‘we kick a–, go it alone’ foreign-policy response to 9/11, the American voter will be ready to try a leader who projects better on the world stage,” says Jeh Johnson, a corporate attorney and former general counsel of the Air Force under Clinton. “Barack’s multicultural heritage will represent that change.” Obama is also likely to be competitive on the money front. At a Hollywood party for Obama last week at the home of agent Ari Emanuel, the enthusiastic crowd of longtime Clinton backers made it clear that their wallets would be open for him.
