"Why do you ask that?"

"Just wondering aloud."

"What about Shirley and Sarah together?" suggested Mr. Crane.

"There's a ticket," Mr. Shore agreed.

"Who wouldn't vote for that?"

BIGGER ENEMIES

President-elect Barack Obama pledged throughout his 2008 campaign to step up the search for Osama bin Laden. But is the terrorist mastermind even alive?

Rober Baer, a former CIA field officer assigned to the Middle East and now Time.com's intelligence columnist, posts this latest headline: "When Will Obama Give Up the Bin Laden Ghost Hunt?"

Mr. Baer says the "last relatively reliable bin Laden sighting was in late 2001," opinion echoed by "more than a few" Pakistani intelligence operatives who knew bin Laden and believe he "is in fact dead."

Suggesting subsequent audio and videotapes supposedly of bin Laden are "manipulated," Mr. Baer cites the "mystery as to why bin Laden didn't pop up during the U.S. election. You would think a narcissistic mass murderer who believes he has a place in history would find it impossible to pass up an opportunity to give his opinion at such a momentous time, at least by dropping off a DVD at the al-Jazeera office in Islamabad."

At least three CIA officers on bin Laden's trail since 9/11 also assume he is dead, Mr. Baer notes. And what if that's the case?

"Indefinitely crashing around Afghanistan's and Pakistan's wild, mountainous tribal region on a ghost hunt cannot serve our interests," he writes. "One day Obama will need to give up the hunt - declare bin Laden either dead or irrelevant. He has more important enemies to deal with, from Iran to Russia."