The New York Times has a great story this morning about the underreported bad blood between John McCain and Barack Obama, stemming from back in 2006 when they both went after ethics reform.  It’s the classic, every-sports-movie-ever-written story of the hotshot rookie up against the grizzled veteran.  McCain saw Obama as an upstart political opportunist, looking to make a name for himself:

 “I understand how important the opportunity to lead your party’s effort to exploit this issue must seem to a freshman senator,” Mr. McCain wrote in a letter to Mr. Obama that he sent to every news outlet on Capitol Hill. “And I hold no hard feelings over your earlier disingenuousness.”

And Obama, for his part, referred to McCain as “cranky,” but publicly (and hilariously) downplayed things during a keynote address:

Mr. Obama’s advisers said although they have not determined how to deal with Mr. McCain, they intend to keep their criticism focused on differences over issues.

And no, they said, do not expect Mr. Obama to dust off the lyrics to a song he performed on March 11, 2006, when he appeared as a keynote speaker at the Gridiron Dinner in Washington. His words were written to the tune of “If I Only Had a Brain.”

“When a wide-eyed young idealist, confronts a seasoned realist, there’s bound to be some strain,” Mr. Obama sang perfectly on pitch. “With the game barely started, I’d be feeling less downhearted, if I only had McCain.”

It’s worth mentioning the fact that in this campaign, Obama and McCain have been depending upon the same group of Independent swing voters, who at least twice in important states have buoyed one candidate at the expense of the other.  In New Hampshire last month, Independents flocked to McCain, carrying him to victory in the Republican primary while leaving Obama with a two-point deficit on the Democratic side and a stunning loss.  In Virginia earlier this week, Independents overwhelmingly moved to Obama, nearly costing McCain what would have been an embarrassing loss to lame-duck candidate Mike Huckabee.

Politicians are by nature– and by necessity– territorial creatures, and the reality of these two alpha candidates poaching from each other’s consituency can’t be generating good feelings between the two.  Likewise, Independents are by nature a fickle group, who will continue to make both candidates jump through every frustrating and sometimes arbitrary hoop, while reserving their right to change their minds at any time for any reason.  Adding to the tension, Obama and McCain both know they could very well be competing for the affection of these voters throughout the year and into November.

It’s clear that a general election matchup between Obama and McCain would eventually get a little personal.  With the Democratic nomination not even decided, they’ve already begun exchanging fire.  During his victory speech in Virginia, McCain went out of his way to paint Obama as a dreamer, not a doer (a strategy that hasn’t worked thus far for Hillary Clinton): ”To encourage a country with only rhetoric rather than sound and proven ideas that trust in the strength and courage of free people is not a promise of hope, it is a platitude.”

Meanwhile, Obama yesterday, as he began doing two weeks ago, accused McCain the Straight Talker of flip-flopping on the Bush tax cuts for political expediency: “Somewhere along the line, he traded those principles for his party’s nomination and now he is for those tax cuts.”  It’s a line of attack that McCain’s Republican opponents couldn’t fully embrace since they’re also for the Bush tax cuts, but that may work with Independents who are drawn to McCain’s against-the-grain reputation.

Granted, this type of back and forth is mild compared to what we’ve seen in the past, both in this election and others, but keep in mind it’s only February.  We’re still nine months away from the general election, and between two candidates who have a history of friction and a history of stepping on each other’s toes, there’s nowhere to go from here but down.