Edwards Aide joining Obama team

[Thrill]

Two Democratic sources tell me Christina Reynolds, John Edwards' former research director, is heading out to Chicago to join Obama's research team.

Reynolds, who worked for both Edwards campaigns and for the DCCC, is among the first in what are expected to be a series of senior hires from Obama's former rivals, as he vastly expands to take in many more states, expands his rapid response operation, and builds a fuller campaign around, particularly, his wife.

Obama, incidentally, has always had a healthy respect for oppo. I asked him at the first press conference after he announced about how he squared hiring opposition researchers with his hopeful new politics, and he responded by defending the notion of holding rivals' to their own records.

POLITICO