As Barack Obama’s campaign notes (along with many bloggers), Hillary Clinton is pushing opposition research quoting an essay he wrote in kindergarten:

In kindergarten, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled ‘I Want to Become President.’ “Iis Darmawan, 63, Senator Obama’s kindergarten teacher, remembers him as an exceptionally tall and curly haired child who quickly picked up the local language and had sharp math skills. He wrote an essay titled, ‘I Want To Become President,’ the teacher said.” [AP, 1/25/07]

Did you know he cried once when he fell and scraped his knee? Clearly this man isn’t tough enough to be president!

On a more serious note, I agree with the Chicago Tribune’s Eric Zorn, who writes that Hillary has “blundered into illustrating one of the more unflattering caricatures of her … in a way that invites not sober criticism but mockery.” It’s a great illustration of the pathologies of both opposition research in general and the hyper-aggressive post-Bill Clinton, post-Swift Boat Democratic “war room” mentality in particular.