Mike Allen and Ben Smith have a story up in the Politico on a questionnaire Obama filled out while campaigning for state senator in 1996. You can read the questionnaire here and here.

No major surprises. Instead, it's basically a reminder that in his early political career -- all of 10 years ago -- Obama was much more liberal in his views than he is now. As Allen and Smith say, this could hurt Obama, whose general election appeal is that he is above ideological divisions, in a race against a Republican.

But otherwise there's little there that someone like Hillary could use against him. She might say he's flip-flopped on a few issues since then, but that's about it.

The larger issue is that this questionnaire helps undermine Obama's aloof ideological image. Illinoisans know he was a big liberal back in his state senate days -- and his U.S. Senate voting record is pretty down-the-line liberal -- but Obama has campaigned as a change candidate, insofar as he says he will rise above the ideological battles of the '90s.