Big Freddy was humming as he joined me for morning coffee.

"You slept well?" I asked as he heaved himself into the bench seat opposite.

"As a babe," Freddy said. "It's been a great week from the Pats to the head to head by Hillarybillary and Obama."

"Hillarybillary?" I asked.

"The same," Freddy said. "Two against one, and Obama scrambling to play defense - a loser's game, which he had better switch because we are not in the last minutes of the fourth quarter here, we are just coming up to half time."

"I though this was about a race track," I said.

"It was, but this week Hill and Bill have been cut blocking Obama, and there's nobody to throw the flag," Freddy said. "Two against one in tag team wrestling with no ref."

"Will you please decide which sports comparison you want to use?" I said. "Besides, he's fought back pretty good with charges of his own."

"Too little, too weak, and too late," Freddy said. "Playing defense can win for you in football, but it's a loser's game in presidential races. Hillary's been whacking him upside the head, Bill's been clipping from behind, and TV loves nothing better when Patrick comes back with 'and your another' sound bites."

"But what's the net gain, if she ostracizes the Democrats who are supporting Obama?" I asked.

"Numbers," Freddy said. "It is all about addition and subtraction, which is what the take away is from those who fall out, which is what the Clintons want from Edwards, who is the last man standing among the walking dead. Both parties have them. They drop out, their supporters have to go somewhere, and they'll want it to be with the winner.

"For the Democrats it's historic - white woman, black man - but not just any woman - the wife of Bill, he the president who ... you can fill in the rest of that in ways that have filled books. He can no more stay away from campaigning than he can from - never mind. He knows down from up in campaigning, and he knows this primary is a pre-lim for what's coming, which, sooner or later is going to be either McCain or Romney. Edwards gives up or he becomes pathetic. The only question is who gets his peel-away supporters, and even if all she gets is a split, she's still way ahead, and front-runners usually benefit from dropouts."

"So you're saying Hillary's going to be the Democrats' choice," I said.

"I'm saying Obama's climbing a mountain behind Hillary and Bill, and they're greasing the trail behind them," Freddy said.

"But that's going to fracture the Democrats," I said. "A lot see Obama as a breath of fresh air."

"But they'll want to win in November," Freddy said. " The Hillarybillary re-run series will be what they have to beat the Republicans with in the grand finale, and oh what that's going to do to the news coverage and the yackety yackers on TV."

"So, you're saying it's all over for Obama?" I said. "I don't think so."

"It's not over until he or the party says it's over," Freddy said. "He has to win and he's not going to quit, but he's got to do something besides playing defense against two old pros who know what 'no holds barred' means. He pulls that off, whoever the Republicans choose will be facing something they've never faced before."

"The first black man to make a serious run for President," I said.

"That," Freddy said, "and the only one ever to shut down the Hillary and Bill show."