One side effect that the protracted Dem primary will have is that we'll be watching still more debates in a race that's already seen more than a dozen of them.

The Hillary camp, for instance, sent out word today that she's agreed to two more verbal showdowns with Obama: A February 10 debate on ABC with George Stephanopoulos; and a February 27 debate in CNN in Houston.

And the Hillary campaign wants still more of them. On a conference call today Hillary pollster Mark Penn declared that the Clinton campaign would like to see a debate between Hillary and Obama once a week through the end of the contest.

Camp Hillary must think she outshines him in that sort of forum, and more debates lessen the degree to which Obama can frame the race only with his superior oratory. But this is clearly a gamble, because as many commentators have noted, the new head-to-head format allows Obama to rise to her stature level in a way that wasn't possible when John Edwards was in the race.

Late Update: The Huffington Post reports that Hillary has also accepted a debate invitation -- from Fox News, risking the anger of progressive activists. An Obama spokesperson told HuffPo that no decisions about any of the above debates had yet been made.