The spat over whether “agents” for Hillary Clinton have been spreading the word that Clinton has “scandalous information” on rival Barack Obama — but won’t spread it because she’s running a positive campaign — reflects the very different political world views of the two candidates.

Clinton advisers insist they have no such info, and no idea what columnist Bob Novak (who first reported the goings-on) is talking about. But they were thrilled with Obama’s aggressive, personal response to the column. They’ve long believed that Obama has a glass jaw — that he’s thin-skinned and susceptible to overreaction in the face of attacks.

They think Obama’s outrage over a three paragraph blind item from a Republican columnist plays right into that weakness. Witness statements from Clinton aides after Obama’s response — they say he fell right into a Republican trap by immediately attacking a fellow Democrat, and that his over-the-top response to such a minor story in the primary just goes to show that he wouldn’t be able to handle much tougher attacks that are sure to come in the general election.

Clinton, on the other hand, wears the GOP attacks on her as a badge of honor on the campaign trail. She’s incorporated Harry Truman’s phrase “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen” into her stump speech; aides think Obama feels the heat a little too much to be the best nominee.

Obama aides, meanwhile, believe this type of rumor-mongering is exactly the kind of scummy Washington politics that they’re fighting against. It presented a perfect opportunity to hit Hillary for being part of the back-room Washington tradition that most Americans are sick of. What’s more, they say, her campaign’s initial response just showed her evasiveness — Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe wrote “once again, the Clinton campaign refuses to answer two simple, direct questions” about the Novak story.

In his original statement, Obama said he wouldn’t be deterred by “swift-boat politics.” That 2004 incident colors much of the current Clinton/Obama dust-up. A Clinton adviser points out that Novak was one of the first reporters to write on the swift-boat attacks on John Kerry’s Vietnam service. And Democrats are always aware of the toll those attacks took on Kerry’s candidacy, and his refusal to strike back before the swifties’ criticism went mainstream. Obama’s campaign won’t let that happen to them; their rapid and aggressive response was designed in part to nip this rumor in the bud before it gains wider circulation.