Sometimes it’s the little things that suggest a campaign has, at least for now, weathered the Obama storm and is moving smoothly into the summer. Hillary Clinton’s Tuesday morning press conference, announcing her endorsement by Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, had a multitude of those little omens.

1. Few if any defections of consequence. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and opportunism hath no representative like a New Jersey politician.

(Think of former Sen. Bob Torricelli, creator of the Torricelli rule that limited the use of CIA sources with checkered human-rights records, ripping into the Central Intelligence Agency on the morning of September 12, 2001, on the floor of the Senate.)

If Menendez had endorsed Barack Obama or John Edwards, after a fairly long and fruitful relationship with Hillary, it would have been a big story. And if there had been any political advantage to doing so, Menendez would have sniffed it out. But in the end, New Jersey is a state dominated by a ruthlessly effective political machine, and the machine supports the boss. (Any comparison to the Sopranos is deliberate.) Right now, the Clintons are the boss. Obama, Edwards, Richardson — they all might be nice guys, but there’s little reason for them to expect to overtake Hillary in the Garden State.

Obama and Edwards have picked up a few endorsements here and there that raise an eyebrow or two — Tim Kaine, David Geffen, and Oprah Winfrey for Obama; David Obey and Danny Glover for Edwards — but so far, the Clintons have seen relatively few past supporters jump ship.

2. The press is still eating out of her hand. First question at her Tuesday-morning press conference: “Can you tell us what the Latino vote means to you?”

Second question, paraphrased: Is your high levels of support among women a reflection of the number of women working in major roles in your campaign?

A later question, from what I suspect was a reporter for a foreign publication: “You may be ready to be president of the United States, but is the United States ready for a woman president?” This gave Hillary yet another opportunity to emphasize that while she would make history as the first woman president, she’s not running because she’s a woman, she’s running because she’s the best qualified and most experienced. This seems to get appreciative nods every time, but it’s nearly impossible to imagine her winning with the alternative to that argument: “Vote for me because I have ovaries.”

Yet another question: “How do you balance your duties as a senator and as a presidential candidate?” Hillary answered that it was very difficult.

Despite her supporters’ perpetual whining that Hillary is scrutinized in ways that no other candidate is, she’s rarely hit with hostile questions during press availabilities. (No one has made much out of the allegations in the recent biographies, for example.) Almost any press conference with Mitt Romney features a Mormonism question; Rudy gets hit with abortion regularly; Thompson will get asked about his work ethic; and McCain can expect to be asked about his ability to win over opponents of illegal immigration, who are currently hanging him in effigy. The worst question for Hillary is on “electability,” or questions whether she can win, as opposed to questions that inherently articulate arguments why she shouldn’t win.

3. As frontrunner, she doesn’t need to attack. Democratic primary voters are conflict-averse, and tend to punish primary challengers who attack their opponents too aggressively. Dick Gephardt’s attacks on Howard Dean in the closing weeks of Iowa in 2004 were later described as a “murder-suicide”; they persuaded voters about Dean’s flaws, but caucus goers so resented Gephardt’s mudslinging that the attacks benefited Kerry and Edwards in the end.

Hillary was asked about her rivals missing a (constitutionally dubious) vote of “no confidence” in attorney general Alberto Gonzales. (Obama, Joe Biden, and Chris Dodd, missed the vote.) A campaign scrapping for every advantage in a tight race would have used the opportunity to paint their rivals as insufficiently dedicated to flaying the Bush administration at every opportunity. But instead, Hillary demurred.

“Each of us has to make these choices,” she said. “I’m not going to speak to other people’s choices on scheduling. I know how hard it is to be in seven places at once.”

Hillary gets to look magnanimous, while inoculating herself against any missed votes in the future. As the current leader in the field, Hillary doesn’t need to win every fight. Often, she can win by avoiding them.

4. Fundraising, the big contest that doesn’t really matter: Perhaps the worst day for Hillary in the past year was the day that it was calculated that Obama out-raised her — by a hair — in the last quarter. Obama suddenly seemed more than the mere sum of the media hype: There was real appetite for a non-Hillary nominee. But in the end, the fundraising hasn’t translated into a polling advantage. Obama still trails Hillary by a healthy margin in most polls.

Hillary’s last comment at Tuesday’s event was that Obama out-raising her in the current quarter would mean “absolutely nothing…we know we’re going to have the resources we need for this campaign.”

And she’s right. If the Hillary 2008 campaign falls short of its goal of the presidency, a lack of funds is unlikely to be the crippling obstacle. The Clinton’s extensive network, built over eight years of the presidency and six years in the Senate can go toe-to-toe with any rival of either party.

Obama, Edwards, or…well, really just those two have a shot of knocking off Hillary’s smooth road to the nomination. But so far, what they’ve offered hasn’t quite been enough.

–Jim Geraghty writes the Hillary Spot blog on NRO.