Why in the World Would He Go For It?

Hillary Clinton this morning laughingly admitted the possibility of pairing up with Barack on a national ticket.

Barack Obama sounds less ready to be pushed

into such speculation, and rightly so. He understands what Hillary's hoping for -- an upsurge of Democratic sentiment for a "compromise" pairing between the two of them, that would in turn allow her to claim a right to the top of the ticket by virtue of her "experience" and the argument that his time will come, made even stronger by his "seasoning" as her VP. Anyone who looks at Al Gore understands how risky it can be for one's own ambitions to serve as a Clinton veep -- and no doubt Barack isn't ready for the bloom to come off his rose by virtue of being present as a new crop of Clinton missteps and scandals unfolds.

Certainly Barack must understand that little would be more dangerous to his dreams of winning than having Hillary on the ticket as his veep. She isn't interested in spending more eight years standing in the shadow of yet another, more charismatic man -- pushing her up to around 70 by the time two Obama terms would be over. For the Clintons' money, the only way it's advantageous to run in the second spot on an Obama-Clinton ticket would be if the ticket destined to lose, positioning her to run against a President John McCain as heir presumptive in 2012 a la Walter Mondale.