[If Mr. Huckabee and Mr. McCain continue to set the tone for the Republican side, Mrs. Clinton would find it hard to escape the partisan past she unwillingly symbolizes. Her negative poll ratings are consistently higher than those of any candidate running for president. They seem more unyielding as well.

Given that the Republican base has shrunk since 2004, it makes strategic sense for the party's candidates to be campaigning in an expansive mood. This new Republican style is not a matter only for the general election, however. As partisan battle recedes, the role of the warrior in both parties is diminished. Thus, Democratic primary voters may find Mr. Obama's claim to post-partisanship to be perceptive rather than naïve.]

[On the trail, Mrs. Clinton has assured voters that she is the only Democratic candidate who has been "vetted" and shown capable of withstanding the right-wing attack machine. But that machine has grown curiously quiet of late. ]

[Could Hillary Clinton retool her image and campaign to prevail against a Republican who attacks with love bombs instead of wedge issues? Mrs. Clinton's campaign argues that her experience in the culture wars of the '90s, her eternal war-room footing and her deep roots in party politics would be assets in what they see as a partisan death match. But she can sometimes overreach. The day before the New Hampshire primary, she took aim at Mr. Obama but hit the memory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. instead, angering Representative James Clyburn, an influential black politician in South Carolina, home of an upcoming primary.]  

"Huckabee calls for wifely submission

Gov. Mike Huckabee reaffirmed that a wife should submit to her husband during last night's Republican debate in South Carolina. Huckabee tried to soften the blow by saying that the Bible commands husbands and wives to give to each other 100%. He endorsed a far more radical position in 1998 when he endorsed the Southern Baptist Convention's amended statement on the family in a national advertising campaign.

The Southern Baptist Convention revised its core statement of belief in June of 1998 to include an explicit dictate for wives to submit to their husbands. Mike Huckabee and his wife Janet were among the 131 prominent Baptists signed a statement telling the SBC: "You Are Right" about the new family code."