"I'm always the underdog," Obama said at the Four Points Hotel near Midway Airport. "Sen. Clinton remains the favorite because of the enormous familiarity people have with her and the institutional support and the political insiders who lined up early behind her candidacy before they had a sense of how strong I might be." Join discussion...

she followed her "let's talk politics" line with an extended riff on why she would be better positioned to beat Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in November, including a claim that she can cross "the commander-in-chief threshold" in a general election – and an implication, perhaps, that Obama cannot. Join discussion...