This time, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton actually said hello to each other.
The two were in the Senate chamber this morning for a series of votes they can use to their advantage in their campaigns – especially their support for a Democratic measure that would require the Bush administration to stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which won the votes of 97 senators, and another bill that would give collective bargaining rights to state and local public safety officials.
The last time the two showed up for votes, they carefully avoided any contact. Not today. As the series of four votes dragged on, lasting nearly an hour, Obama casually walked up to Clinton and the two exchanged one of those half-hug, half arm-clasp greetings.
The half-hug was mediated – naturally – by an uncommitted superdelegate, Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, who laughed heartily with the two presidential candidates.
Don't worry, though. The campaigns have a life of their own. While Clinton and Obama made nice on the floor, Clinton's campaign e-mailed a memo about tonight's West Virginia primary – which she is expected to win easily – called “Why West Virginia Matters.”
A more intriguing development was the series of intense, one-on-one conversations Obama and Clinton had with both of the Michigan senators – Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow – who are anxiously awaiting word on whether the Michigan delegation will be seated at the Democratic national convention in August.
Levin said he talked to both senators about the recent recommendation by the Michigan Democratic Party's executive committee to give Clinton 69 delegates and Obama 59 delegates as a way to get the state seated in Denver. Last week, Clinton rejected that plan, according to CQ's Marie Horrigan. Levin today wouldn't say whether either agreed to support the plan. Both senators also spent time talking to Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, whose state's role in the convention is also up in the air.
Obama also had a lengthy conversation with Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee and now one of Obama's supporters, in a scene that looked like a tutorial from a veteran presidential candidate to a student who is probably about to go through a general election himself.
Chilliest conversation of the day: Clinton's extended one-on-one conversation with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who recently dismissed Clinton's chances of becoming Obama's running mate with the observation that "if we had real leadership – as we do with Barack Obama – in the number-two spot as well, it'd be enormously helpful."
Kennedy did most of the talking. Clinton mostly stood there, looking stern and a bit hurt.
At least she and Obama didn't have to make small talk with John McCain, the Republican nominee-to-be.
He wasn't at any of the votes. Apparently, voting on a Democratic collective bargaining bill and a Republican energy amendment that included drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – which McCain has opposed in the past – weren’t considered a good use of his time.
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