The much ballyhooed “snub” at last night’s State of the Union is just not true according to one witness. Senator Claire McCaskill, who has also endorsed her colleague Senator Barack Obama, told reporters, “It was not a snub. I had a ringside seat.”

On board the Obama campaign plane en route from Washington, DC, to Wichita, Kansas, Senators Obama and McCaskill came to the press section to take questions. “It was one of those accidents that just happened and got caught on film, and frankly, everybody’s spoiling for a fight,” McCaskill explained.
Obama, who got flak when he told Hillary Clinton at a past debate that she was “likable enough,” tried to dismiss the claims that his he was cold to his main rival once again. “I think that there’s just a lot more tea leaf reading going on here than I think people are suggesting,” he said. Rather, he was “surprised” by reports that he snubbed Hillary Clinton. “I was sort of turning away because Claire asked me a question as Senator Kennedy was reaching for her,” he recounted. “And, you know, Senator Clinton and I have very cordial relations off the floor and on the floor, and I waved at her as we were coming into, as I was coming into the Senate Chamber before we walked over last night.”

When asked to further describe the “incident,” McCaskill said, “There was a wave and there was a friendly moment, and I think that as somebody who watched the whole thing, I was amazed when I woke up this morning and I was part of it - I didn’t even realize. I mean, it was one of those things that, you know, all of a sudden it’s being blown into something that it frankly just wasn’t.”

Even if we don’t know what really happened, one thing is true, as McCaskill observed. “We got lots to argue about, but that isn’t one of them.”

Sen Clinton told close to 2,000 people at Trinity College in Hartford, CT that the President’s State of the Union address marks “a red letter night in American history: it is the last time George Bush will give a State of the Union.”

“If we all do our part, next year it will be a Democratic president giving the State of the Union,” she said to cheers from the crowd. “Let’s be clear: one thing that President Bush has never understood is that the State of the Union is not about a speech in Washington. It is about the state of the lives of the American people.”

Senator Clinton will be in attendance at tonight’s event on Capitol Hill, along with rival Barack Obama. But she made it clear she didn’t expect to hear anything new — and issued an unlikely invitation to President Bush. “I’m sure that the President tonight will, as he has for the previous seven years, say that the state of our union is strong. But with all due respect, Mr President, come out on the road with me,” she said. “Come and meet the people that I meet. Listen to the stories I listen to. Sit at tables in diners, and hear what’s on America’s minds.”

Finally, Clinton said both she and the country are ready to move on from the last president to the next one. “Yes, a State of the Union speech will be delivered tonight,” she said. “But when that is finally over, it will be time for us to turn our attention to picking the next president.”

On a flight between Macon, Georgia, and Birmingham, Alabama, Sunday morning, Barack Obama took a few questions from reporters gathered in the aisle of the campaign plane. He walked back to the press section of the airplane to talk to the gaggle for about 7 minutes, as the plane was making its descent into Birmingham’s airport.

During the avail, he made it clear that Obama was still the underdog going into the February 5th contests - despite his overwhelming victory last night in South Carolina. Jumping from state to state and holding quick rallies - known as “tarmac campaigning” - is not how Obama won Iowa and South Carolina, where he spent a lot of time on the ground talking to voters and organizing a grassroots movement.

“It presents more of a challenge for us, I don’t think there’s any doubt about it,” he admitted, citing Clinton’s name recognition as a reason. “Here we’re going to have to work with a much more compressed schedule. It’s clear that Senator Clinton, I think, has the advantage in a lot of these states. We would expect them to do very well, but we’re going to campaign and compete across the country and we think we have a strong base of support and certainly coming out of South Carolina, I think we’ve got a lot of energy behind us.”

Obama remained mum when asked about Ted Kennedy’s endorsement, which has been confirmed by FOX News. “Ted Kennedy has not official endorsed my candidacy. I’ve had ongoing conversations with Ted since I’ve got into this race. At the point where he is clear about what he’s doing and wants to make it public, I will let Ted make it public.”

He was more forthcoming on Caroline Kennedy’s glowing endorsement in today’s New York Times, calling it “an extraordinary honor.” He said, “I thought the piece she wrote in the Times today, which I didn’t get a chance to see until last night, was deeply moving and I’m gratified. For somebody who, I think, has been such an important part of our national imagination and who generally shies away from involvement in day to day politics to step out like that is something that I’m very grateful for.”

And on the State of the Union address for which the Senator will return to Washington tomorrow:

“It’s not clear to me where the President wants to take the country in this last year. Obviously this will be his last State of the Union Speech. I suspect he may devote some time to try to explain his record over the last seven years. I am gratified that you’ve at least seen conversations with the White House and the Democrats and the rough outlines of a deal on an economic stimulus, but I hope the president recognizes that the problems we have are deep-seeded; they go beyond the immediate problems of the stock market and the credit markets. We’ve got an economy that’s been out of balance for a very long time, a lot of workers, a lot of middle class families that see their wages and incomes flat-lined over the last several years. We need to move aggressively forward, whether the president feels he can muster an aggressive strategy for the economic problems we face, I don’t know. I also suspect he will talk about Iraq and tout the reductions of violence there. I think the reductions of violence are a positive, so I believe that now is the time to send a clear signal that we’re going to begin pulling our troops out of Iraq. I don’t expect to hear that from the president.”