Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, who made news recently by admitting on national television that the surge in Iraq is producing results, sat down with the Chicago Tribune editorial board on Wednesday. Durbin spennt a lot of time discussing Iraq, but also touched on the mess in Springfield and how things are going for his colleague, Barack Obama:

If it's a national poll, Hillary Clinton will always run ahead of Barack Obama. Even though we [Illinoisans] know Barack personally, and his kids' names and everything, only 60 percent of Americans do. Now go to the states where they're working and you'll find that the polling is much closer between the two of them and Barack at this point is either tied or ahead in most of these states. So I feel good about it. I would say at this point that he still has that magic. He is bringing the fortysomethings in as John Kennedy did in '60. It's not just the volunteers and the voters, but it's a lot of business people and community leaders who are in that age range [and] who think it's their turn. And that's good for us.