For those who have been paying attention, Emanuel Cleaver’s heart-head conflict has been lingering for months.

The congressman and former mayor from Kansas City has been pushed into the national political spotlight for comments he made in an interview that aired Sunday on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Cleaver, a prominent Hillary Clinton supporter, said “If I had to make a prediction right now, I’d say Barack Obama is going to be the next president.”

“I will be stunned if he’s not the next president of the United States,” Cleaver said.

Obama supporters and others in the Democratic party calling for Clinton to make a graceful exit from the race are pointing to Cleaver’s comments as proof that even her own fans recognize the inevitable.

But although Cleaver has publicly been loyal to the Clintons, his affection for Obama has been hovering near the surface.

Last month, Cleaver wrote to party chairman Howard Dean, asking him to quell the rhetoric between the two candidates before it evolves (devolves?) into a “fist fight.”

Earlier, the Kansas City Star’s Steve Kraske asked Cleaver that if he were the last superdelegate standing, would he stand in the way of an African-American becoming president?

“I’d have to think about it,” Cleaver said.

And before that, Cleaver told me for a story in advance of the Super Tuesday primary that, as a racial trailblazer himself, he has some mixed emotions about Obama’s candidacy.

“I don’t know if the word is ‘conflicted,’” Cleaver said. “I certainly feel a tinge of pride.”

Cleaver developed a close relationship with the Clintons during his time as mayor, and was even eyed for a job once in Bill Clinton’s White House.

But as pastor who was active in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the first African-American mayor of Kansas City, it would be difficult to imagine Cleaver does not have at least a sentimental connection to the Obama campaign.

Sounds like “conflicted” really is the word.

Cleaver: Is he “conflicted?”