It might have seemed unlikely on Tuesday following Hillary Clinton's crushing victory in West Virginia, but Obama dominated this week, displaying his growing political skill and ability to deflect attacks from his opponents.

Obama's enemies, whether diehard Hillary supporters or Karl Rove Republicans, were hoping for two things this week. First they had to hope that Hillary's landslide win in West Virginia would fundamentally change the momentum of the race and lead to several days of negative coverage for Obama.

Now, Obama clearly does have work to do with rural, white voters in some parts of the country, but talking about the problem ad nauseam on cable news does nothing to help the Obama campaign solve it. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Second, when George Bush launched his attack from the Knesset, there was clearly the chance that Obama would fumble the response, getting caught like a deer in the headlights. This would have validated the ailing GOP's last remaining line of attack - fearmongering. Clinton would have been emboldened in her long-shot bid, and the GOP would have smelled blood.

Instead, Obama outmanuevered his opponents. Clinton's victory in WV was knocked off the front page as Obama rolled out the endorsement of John Edwards in Michigan less than 24 hours later, cementing the idea that the Democratic party was coalescing around him as the nominee.

But the real genius was in Obama's response to Bush. He put McCain on the spot, forcing him to join Bush in his beyond-the-pale attack and allowing Obama to join them at the hip and brand both of them as negative, dishonest fearmongers. This was really the first time in the campaign McCain and Bush have spoken as one, and if the Obama campaign has their way, it won't be the last.

Most media pundits seemed to agree Obama had gotten the better of the exchange. Chuck Todd called Bush's attack a gift to Obama:

...it essentially kept Clinton on the sidelines just two days after her big West Virginia victory...Obama's opponent was no longer Clinton or McCain, but the man with the 27% job-approval rating....And this will all play out another day -- and will likely extend into the weekend -- as Obama will respond this afternoon to Bush at his rally with Tom Daschle in South Dakota, NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports. Obama will react to both what he considers Bush's politicization of foreign policy and the substance of Bush's attack.

Marc Ambinder agreed:

I've tried to understand, from the perspective of the McCain campaign, what yesterday was all about.

McCain spent the week putting distance between himself and President Bush.

On the day McCain gives a speech that breaks with many traditions and habits of the Bush Administration; On the day McCain preaches post-partisanship,

He ties himself very tightly to the President on a central and disputed element of Bush's foreign policy vision;

He allows -- or his campaign allowed -- the White House to step on his message.

Did the White House coordinate this day with the McCain campaign? Everyone would assume that they did. Did they?

Remember, this was supposed to be the week John McCain distanced himself from Bush, with a speech on the environment, and a newfound eagerness to get the troops home soon. So...how's that going?

Another encouraging sign..the media didn't seem to be having any part of Bush and McCain's BS. Nothing encapsulates it better than this timeless moment from Hardball, wherein Chris Matthews attacks, destroys, and then gleefully stomps on the bones of right-wing hack Kevin James:

Obama seemed to be saying, attack me, and I will wrap George Bush around your neck every single time.