It’s 3 a.m. and the phone is ringing in the White House. President Hillary Clinton answers, but if her campaign is any indication, the advisers who gather around to help manage the crisis will begin bickering and finger-pointing. And the president will be unable to call U.S. allies for help because she didn’t pay the phone bill.

Campaigning for president is like running the Boston marathon every day for months at a time while eating bad food, getting little sleep and having to stop to pose for photographs half way up Heartbreak Hill. Sen. Clinton has done a remarkable job keeping up the pace. But part of that marathon race is managing what is essentially a multimillion-dollar nonprofit that was launched just months earlier and changes its headquarters weekly. And on that score, Sen. Clinton seems like a CEO promoted beyond her skills.

From presumptive nominee in January to tenacious underdog in April, Sen. Clinton has changed campaign slogans a handful of times, had to loan the campaign $5 million of her own money, failed to pay bills, and reshuffled staff after reports of shouting matches among top advisers. Not exactly a smoothly running machine.

Having the resources and power of the White House might bring out a different Mrs. Clinton, but conclusions about the kind of president she would be can be drawn based on the way she manages her campaign.

And contrasts with Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign are inevitable. He has consistently raised more money – mostly from individuals – effectively organized and rallied supporters, used the Internet in fresh ways, and when staffers make offensive remarks – as one did, referring to Mrs. Clinton as a “monster” – they are swiftly removed.

And then there are the recent examples of how each has handled political adversity. Sen. Clinton told – more than once – a story about dodging sniper fire on a strip to Bosnia, only to have it disproven. She reluctantly conceded the error, dismissed its importance given the amount of speaking she has done.

Sen. Obama’s problems with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, may prove more difficult to shake than false memories of sniper fire. But when the Rev. Wright’s inflammatory remarks, played repeatedly on TV, reached critical mass, Sen. Obama responded with a serious, thoughtful speech on the difficult issue of race.

In a story by the Web-based The Politico, Steve Elmendorf, a deputy campaign manager for Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 campaign and a Sen. Clinton supporter, is quoted describing Sen. Obama’s campaign as “one of the best-run presidential campaigns in the last 20 years. I think they are focused and disciplined and on message.”

The Politico reports that for both candidates, their campaigns are the largest organization each has ever run: “In February alone, Obama had 1,280 paid employees, at a cost of $2.61 million; Clinton had 935 employees and a monthly payroll of $1.63 million.” Campaigning may be like working in a traveling circus. But running the federal government – and steering the country through choppy international waters – requires the combined abilities of tightrope walker, juggler and contortionist, as well as business manager. Voters may wonder if Sen. Clinton can handle the parts.