Opinion: There’s no escaping Obama’s message

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Barack Obama’s presidential campaign showed off its nimbleness -- and, even more so, its overflowing treasury -- with the quickly produced response ad to the ‘3 a.m. in the morning’ spot that the Hillary Clinton team unveiled earlier in the day (here’s the Clinton ad; here’s the Obama one).

But Obama’s cadres of aides also pay attention to the smallest of details. And that was on vivid display tonight at the candidate’s rally in San Antonio.

Every urinal in the men’s rooms at Verizon amphitheater was outfitted with a door hanger that not only urged support for Obama, but had an explanation of the ‘Texas two-step’ voting procedure -- how those who really want to make a difference on Tuesday first should cast a primary ballot, then show up for local caucuses.

It’s unknown whether locales for the hangers were found in the women’s rooms; understandably, The Times’ Mark Z. Barabak was unable to obtain firsthand knowledge of that.

Barabak does relate that, as has been so often the case of late, Obama ...

proved quite the draw, attracting about 8,000 folks. And the candidate drew a roar from that crowd when, after terming the war with Iraq ‘the greatest foreign policy decision of a generation,’ he referenced the ringing phone featured in the new Clinton ad.

Said Obama: ‘Hillary Clinton picked up the phone and gave the wrong answer. And John McCain picked up the phone and gave the wrong answer. And George Bush picked up the phone and gave the wrong answer.’

Perhaps most tellingly, his initial mention of the Clinton ad sparked a chorus of boos.

The tension -- between the two candidates, between their camps and between their partisans -- is growing. And if the race continues past Tuesday, look for more and more of the Democratic leaders who have remained neutral to began expressing concerns about the divisive effects that the battle may start to produce for a party once so giddy about its fall prospects.

-- Don Frederick