Hillary was the favorite going into campaign 2008. And she wasn't/isn't just the favorite - she's the HEAVY. She's the "return of the miraculous Clintons."

Yet Obama is proving that the world has changed since the 1990's. He's also proving that he is infinitely more friendly and likable than the ice queen strategist that Hillary has always been.

Today's New York Times is showing us one more reason (in Hillary's hometown, on her home turf, in front of her home fans, in a state which she JUST won re-election by nearly 60% for her Senate seat) why Obama is beating her in all the categories that count... money - and boots on the ground.

The officials described themselves as impressed with the strength ofMr. Obama’s campaign in recent weeks, saying it reflected a grass-rootsenthusiasm for Mr. Obama that many noticed among black voters in theirown districts. And that could signal trouble for Mrs. Clinton, forcingher to devote precious attention to her home state, where blacks madeup 20 percent of the Democratic primary vote in 2004, just as she hashad to scramble to keep black support nationwide.

Facing a potential drift of black support, the Clinton campaign has recently taken several steps: dispatching former President Bill Clinton to speak before black and Hispanic lawmakers in Albany earlier this year, and then to address the Rev. Al Sharpton’s group, the National Action Network, in New York last week; using Bill Lynch, who was a top political adviser to former Mayor David N. Dinkins,to corral black support in New York City; and enlisting heavyweightsfrom the black political establishment like Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York, to help Mrs. Clinton court black leaders.

Manyblack New York officials have strongly supported Mrs. Clinton — not tomention her husband, starting with her first Senate campaign in 2000,when she was still in the White House and had only just establishedresidency in the state.

But these officials said it had becomeincreasingly clear to them that Mr. Obama, who has barely campaigned inNew York, is no mere flash in the pan, and seems to possess the publicapproval ratings and campaign war chest needed to compete in apresidential contest.

“I would have supported Hillary if it werenot for Barack Obama,” said Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV, aleading figure in Harlem who said he had yet to make an endorsement.“He can identify with my African-American community in a way that noother candidate can.” Assemblywoman Crystal D. Peoples, who representsBuffalo, and who has been contacted by one of Mrs. Clinton’s toppolitical lieutenants, said she was similarly divided. “It’s a verydifficult decision,” Ms. Peoples said. “I’ll really do a lot ofsoul-searching on this one.”

Assemblyman N. Nick Perry,Democrat of Brooklyn, said many black politicians were mindful of whathappened in 1988, when overwhelmingly large numbers of black primaryvoters in New York supported the presidential candidacy of the Rev. Jesse Jackson,to the surprise of black politicians who supported his rivals. He saidthat “there was a lot of atoning that had to be done” afterward amongthose politicians.

“This is bigger than Jesse Jackson,” Mr.Perry, who remained undecided, said of Mr. Obama’s candidacy. “When youlook at Obama, his potential seems quite explosive.”

Bigger than the Jesse candidacy - in a nutshell it says it all. In the 1980's nobody was bigger than Jesse. Al wasn't even a thought in anybody's mind. 2008 has already proven one thing... it ain't gonna be over for quite a while.

And I still say, since I saw him as a mere state legislator in Illinois - that Obama will be the one standing when the dust has finally settled.

(Just one note of important clarification. I do not support Obama, will not vote for him, have publicly and continually criticized him, and happen to think he would be a President who would single handedly set conservatism back a generation or more - smiling the whole time he was doing it.)