From John Heilemann's profile of Mark Penn in the new issue of New York Magazine:

So Clinton has run as a quasi- incumbent, her torso scored with the battle scars of the nineties, pounding Obama over his "irresponsible and frankly naive" willingness to meet with foreign dictators. Obama, in turn, has let loose with thinly veiled attacks on "those who tout their experience working the system in Washington" - a critique that Penn finds comical. "Now Obama is dissing being a senator? That means he's running on being a state senator," Penn remarks. "I don't know that Springfield, Illinois, is such a great place compared to Washington!"

Of course, the Obama team would be quick to point out there was another guy who spent eight years in Springfield before moving into the White House and doing a not half-bad job. And surely Penn knows from his own data that almost every town in America is held in higher regard than Washington DC in the minds of voters.

UPDATE: A reader emails siding with Penn:

Having served on the legislative staffs in both Springfield and also Washington, I can say with confidence that the Illinois General Assembly is the playground of party hacks, cronies and dubious characters of all persuasions. There are also very talented public servants there, but they are the exception to the rule. Its level of dysfunction as a deliberative body, its overwhelming infiltration by special interests of all kinds, its pay-to-play mentality, and its paralyzing partisanship make Capitol Hill look like the Algonquin Round Table.

There is no doubt that Lincoln took the helm of the nation with little of what we would consider presidential experience. But to infer that Senator Obama's time in Springfield is somehow sufficient or suitable experience for the nation's top job belies some lack of awareness of the workings of Illinois politics.