One of the great things about a hotly contested political campaign is that you get to see the opponents change roles, sometimes several times over the course. “The loser now shall later be win,” as Dylan sang in his usual challenging syntax, or more accurately: the loser now shall later act like a winner. Or the underdog who should be winner. Or the person who used to complain about getting ganged up but who now says ganging up on the lead candidate is an all-American sport, like horse shoes, or shooting at birds just like I did with grandpa when I was a little girl…

After Obama complained about the tenor of Wednesday’s debate, Hillary saw this as an opportunity to call him a weenie again. “We were both asked some pretty tough questions,” she told a local TV station in Pennsylvania yesterday. “That’s part of what happens in a debate and a campaign,” she said. “And I know he spent all day yesterday complaining about the hard questions he was asked. But you know, being asked tough questions in a debate is nothing like the pressures you face inside the White House. And in fact when the going gets tough you can’t just walk away…”

Actually you can walk away from the helicopter, cupping a hand over your ear to indicate you can’t understand what reporters are shouting. Be sure to smile, and have someone cue the dog.

Obama, in all fairness, spoke more about the level of the discourse in the debate, and the rather three-pronged nature of the attack: At times ABC moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos played hoods to Hillary’s Sinatra (“Okay, boys, that’s enough”). But blaming the press is a chump’s game. The anchors who moderate these things are the worst kind of media prima donnas; surrounded by sycophants, they come to actually believe that their opinions matter. And a candidate’s press corps, the people who gamely follow them around from one stop to the next, on planes and busses, are already beleaguered. (Think of your last plane trip, multiply that by 1000, and add the joy of listening to the same stump speech every day for months.) You can’t afford to have them turn on you. Look at what’s happening with McCain’s coverage now that he’s doing less straight talking and more spinning. Feed the animals and maybe they won’t bite.

Later, after Bill Clinton (who hates the press with a passion) accused Obama of “whining,” his wife came back for another swing of the bat. “Having been in the White House for eight years, and seen what happens in terms of the pressures and stresses on a president, that was nothing,” Hillary told kids at a high school in Pennsylvania, confusing, once again, being on the premises with having had the job. When she speaks of her eight years in the White House as the cornerstone of her experience I think of little kids, behind those toy steering wheels, who believe they are driving the car.

But if turnabout is fair play, as the former frontrunner seems to think, she must have relished the release of her own secret fundraiser tape. Speaking to supporters at a closed-door event after Super Tuesday (note to candidates: there are no closed doors anymore), Hillary decried the effect of MoveOn in the election, both its money and its zealous supporters. “So they flood into these caucuses and dominate them and really intimidate people who actually show up to support me,” she complained. But wait — I thought you were the tough guys? And that with MoveOn it was not just about Obama: they have had you in its sights ever since you gave George Bush a blank check in the Middle East.

Personally, I think Hillary and some members of the media may be doing our man a favor by laying out the GOP playbook for him. He does need to respond to stupid, offensive, beside-the-point lines of attack without looking pissed off. The most difficult part of being a politician is probably learning to smile when people say imbecilic things. The primaries are like a tryout before the real battle. A true hero needs to be challenged, as Joseph Campbell reminded George Lucas and others. Sometimes they even have to die before they come back.