Maybe you can take Saturday Night Live as a barometer: they couldn't pass up the rich comic potential of the Clintons, but they didn't or only barely touched Obama.
Dowd is mining that comic vein. There's no order out to circle the wagons yet, so she feels free to needle Hillary.
I just wonder how much of the “protection”, even if it was slightly less afforded to the Clintons than it has been to Obama, has been lifted.
To me, it seems like it’s not only been completely lifted, but that there is an active attempt to start spelling out the really dark stuff for the low info voters. I’m fascinated by how much more fire they might be willing to play with here.