No, it is not Hillary or Bill Clinton that has woken up from a stupor; it’s the media. Either because they were guilted into some self-reflection by Saturday Night Live or because the Clinton team’s harping on biased media coverage took its toll, the media seems to be dropping its reverential tone toward Barack Obama.

Jake Tapper on NAFTA-gate: “And in fact, the story seems today more alive than ever. That is, if the press does its job.” Clinton goads them further with this, reported by MSNBC:

I would ask you to look at this story, substitute my name for Sen. Obama’s name and see what you would do with this story. That’s what I would ask you to do. If some of my economic advisers had been having private meetings with foreign governments basically saying ignore what I’m saying because it’s only political rhetoric, I think it raises serious questions.

And Howard Kurtz devotes an entire column to the question of whether Barack Obama’s soft coverage (I suppose we can now all admit publicly that is was soft) is toughening. Kurtz cites an exchange in which Obama was finally asked about dropping his flag label pin, asking if it signifies “the end of a long period in which the media have gone easy on the man who could all but clinch the Democratic nomination in tomorrow’s primaries.” The heightened media coverage is one more reason (in addition to some brightening poll trends) why Clinton, I think, will be sticking around for quite a while after Tuesday.