WASHINGTON _ We noticed an ABC News report last night about a “testy exchange” between Barack Obama and a reporter.The question from a New York Times reporter as the Illinois senator walked by while campaigning in South Carolina was whether Bill Clinton “is getting in your head.”

It was a legitimate inquiry that referred to the recent upsurge in hostilities between Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and the Obama campaign’s assertion that ex-prez Bill is skewering him falsely on the trail.

In a risky strategy given his reputation as the unpolitician, Obama departed in recent days from his above-the-fray posture and is returning fire at the Clintons.

But that’s not what really piqued our interest. It was ABC’s characterization of Obama’s interchange and the network’s report that when responding, he had “shot back angrily” and accused the reporter of attempting a “cheap shot.”

We were interested partly because a couple of us in the D.C. bureau are from Illinois, where politics is as rough and tumble as it gets but where politicians are known for keeping their cool.

Obama by no means has a buddy-buddy relationship with journalists like, say, John McCain. But neither does he keep news-gatherers away like lepers, which is the practice among some in the political game.

So we took a look at this YouTube video of the alleged incident posted at The Horse’s Mouth blog. Our reading of Obama’s tone was, like The Horse’s Mouth, different from ABC’s drama-laced version.

What does this have to do with anything? It’s our sense that it does Obama no good among some voters when he is portrayed as the proverbial “angry black man.” He’s a cerebral sort and expressions of anger aren’t typically his style.

Plus, we like to see our fellow Illinoisans keep their cool.