In an interview published in today's New York Times, Senator Barack Obama provides clues to the strategy he may use in a Primary against Hillary Clinton. Obama's comments suggest that he would pitch himself as a member of a newer generation of leaders who aren't bogged down by the partisan battles that involved Hillary and others throughout the 1990s.

Obama also offers a hint of criticism of former President Clinton, suggesting he'll seek to differentiate himself generationally from the Clintons by saying that he's unencumbered by the political baggage borne by Dems who came of age in the 1960s and were part of that decade's political battles. From the Times:

During a lengthy interview just before the midterm elections, Mr. Obama portrayed himself as part of a new generation of political leaders. Asked whether he detected a void in the Democratic presidential field, Mr. Obama replied that he sensed a mood of “Do we want to get beyond the slash-and-burn, highly ideological politics that bogged us down over the last several decades?”

Mr. Obama went on to say that he admired former President Bill Clinton for trying to bridge a centrist course between Democrats and Republicans. But he did not shy away from pointing out Mr. Clinton’s weaknesses — as someone who came of age in the 1960s, and all the debates about Vietnam service, drug use and sexual conduct that went with it, issues that continued to play out, sometimes with Mrs. Clinton in a supporting role.

“Although his instincts were right on target, and I think, intellectually and pragmatically, he understood that America wanted to move beyond those categories, in some ways he was trapped by his biography,” Mr. Obama said. “Some of what I say, I think, is facilitated by the fact that I’m less rooted in some of those arguments.”

Meanwhile, the Associated Press quotes Hillary adviser Howard Wolfson saying that she "is reaching out to her colleagues in the New York delegation and asking for their advice and counsel and their support if she decides to make a run." The Times adds that she held a recent two-our brunch with New York Governor-Elect Eliot Spitzer at which the two discussed the pros and cons of a Presidential run.