I had a realization as I was driving into work this morning that I think Pennsylvanians (and others) would be well-served to keep in mind when evaluating Obama vs. Clinton.
We are all ready for this primary season to be over with, and I'm sure none of us more so than the candidate and his top staff themselves.
Pennsylvania could be the finish line, and certainly Hillary has recognized as much, with her campaign in full-on desperation mode, attacking Obama from every angle they can come up with for the last six weeks. That is the modern state of campaigning, and it is what we have become used to seeing as voters.
What has been the Obama campaign's response? They have sharpened their elbows and attacked back at certain points, but they have always been measured attacks directed at targets that are fair game and very much in play.
So, once again, I think you can say that the campaigns themselves are instructive about how the candidates would function once in office. Obama could have much more readily played for the win today by adopting the "kitchen sink" strategy in return and sending it back Hillary's way. She has many, many negatives in her past that have not been pushed in this campaign, and they could have been exploited well in Pennsylvania.
But he maintained discipline, faith in his own underlying campaign principles, and recognition of the potential long-term damage he would do to himself if he had gone the kitchen sink route. So, with the biggest moments of his life on the line, if he's willing to play fair and disciplined, it becomes easy to make the jump to understanding that he intends to conduct himself in the presidency in the same manner.
He won't vilify enemies for political gain, because that can come back to haunt him. He will keep the waters from being muddied with those he has disagreements with, because today's foe can be tomorrow's partner on a different issue. In short, when he says he wants a new kind of politics in Washington, you don't have to look farther than the difficult but principled choices he's made in his own campaign to find the faith that he means what he says on this count.
Just something to keep in mind as we all deal with the "gotcha" BS and other distractions that tend to cloud the outlook during campaign season.