In this great piece about Obama, Gary Kamiya (one of Salon’s best writers) captures much of what I’m feeling.

Those who support Obama argue that he will be able to work more effectively with Republicans and independents than his rivals. Those who support Clinton or Edwards argue that Obama is a political naif who will go down singing “Kumbaya” while being eaten alive by the right wing. His critics also claim that Obama is too inexperienced to be entrusted with the nation’s highest office, but that argument smacks of bogus “war-on-terror” fear-mongering — Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, who helped bring us the Iraq war, had decades of experience. It’s a false argument in any case: Character and brains count more than decades of cutting deals and shoveling pork through Congress.

The truth is, it’s impossible to know whether Obama would be a more effective president than his opponents. The question of whether bipartisan gentleness is more effective than tough confrontation is meaningless, both because there’s no single answer to it and because we have no way of knowing how any of the Democrats will actually govern — for all we know, Obama may turn out to be a harder-edged negotiatior than Edwards. So it’s really about intangibles. In the end, it may come down to how one feels about the great divide that was so painfully revealed in the 2004 elections.

I would love to know what Bill Clinton’s thinking right now.

On the one hand, he supports his wife, the mother of his daughter, his life partner of almost 40 years. Like Bill, Hillary’s incredibly smart and a policy wonk, and she’d be able to restore the Clintons to the White House, which would only help burnish Bill’s legacy.

Bill has said a few times that he’d be campaigning for Hillary even if they weren’t married.

But you just know that’s a lie. Bill’s got to be looking at Obama right now — a young, fresh-faced, incredibly talented politician with terrific communication skills — with a mixture of admiration, envy, and recognition, and I’m sure there’s a part of himself that wants Obama to win. If he weren’t married to Hillary, he’d totally be supporting Obama. And if Obama gets the nomination, he will be — not just out of party loyalty but out of sheer joy.