The 'Off-Year Primary'

It has become fashionable to refer to the hurdles that presidential contenders must leap before any actual primary votes are cast as primaries of a different sort: There's the "wealth primary" to measure fundraising capability; the "Beltway primary" to measure how party insiders are lining up; and now the "blogosphere primary" to measure where netroots activists are gravitating. But the most important pre-primary "primary" is still the one in which the contenders try to make themselves useful--by lending their star power and giving generously to candidates in tight races--during the election cycle prior to the presidential year.

If there's a winner in the 2006 version of that contest, it's Senator Barack Obama, who started the season swearing off presidential ambitions and ended it with a "well, maybe" flirtation that seemed to capture everyone's imagination. The Illinois Democrat successfully made himself this year's marquee attraction, showing up at rallies for all key Senate and House candidates and even for struggling contenders, like California gubernatorial hopeful Phil Angelides, who were unlikely to win but certain to remember the favor. If Obama's just teasing us (or just selling his latest book) he'll end up helping presumed frontrunner Hillary Clinton by drawing attention away from the crowd of other Democrats competing to be the "anti-Hillary." If he's serious, his popularity positions him as Clinton's worst nightmare--aside from the unlikely prospect of a re-engaged Al Gore.

With Clinton focusing a respectable amount of her attention on a sure-bet re-election bid for her New York Senate seat, Obama's most serious competition for the national spotlight came from Clinton's stand-in, husband Bill, whose in-your-face retorts to Fox News interviewer Chris Wallace made him the unlikely "fighting Democrat" of the fall. Between them, the former President and Obama sucked the air out of the season for Senator John Kerry and his 2004 running mate, John Edwards, as well as for Senator Russ Feingold and Gen. Wesley Clark. Kerry closed the campaign sparring with Republicans who tried to suggest that the Vietnam vet was somehow insensitive to troops in Iraq. Edwards, who has been busy moving to the left, concentrated on building bases in the early primary state of South Carolina and the first caucus state of Iowa, where he campaigned even for state legislative candidates. Feingold kept an active schedule, particularly in Southern and Western states, and made a point of campaigning for candidates who shared his antiwar, pro-civil liberties positions. But neither could compete with Obama's star power.

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