Nightmare Team

I haven't posted about the "Dream Team" meme, mostly because I considered the chances of either Hillary or Obama accepting the other as a VP to be slim and non-existent.

But now Bill Clinton is pushing the idea, meaning Hillary is seriously considering it, meaning it's time to strangle this Rosemary's baby in the cradle.

One of the major strengths of Obama as the Democratic nominee is that he is not Hillary. Yeah, most Democrats who dislike Hillary, like me, will probably hold our noses and vote Democratic in November if she heads the ticket, but the independents and even republicans who are now looking kindly on Obama will not.

And while there may be some Hillary partisans so bitter about her not being the nominee that they will refuse to vote for a Democratic ticket headed by Obama, there is no large bloc of Hillary voters who would prefer McCain to Obama.

Adding Hillary to the ticket as VP gains Obama nothing and probably costs him millions of independent votes.

Adding Obama to the ticket as VP gains Hillary few, if any, of Obama's independents, and though it probably doesn't cost her any votes, won't gain her enough to beat McCain.

Until Bill opened his big mouth again, I doubted that Hillary would ever consider the VP spot. For the past year, she hasn't been running a campaign as much as planning a coronation. The fighting attitude she has displayed lately - and to apparent good effect in Texas and Ohio - strikes me less as aggressiveness than bitter fury at not being handed the nomination on Super Tuesday. Now I wonder if she could swallow her pride enough to accept the second spot.

I think Hillary's pride would also prevent her from offering VP to Obama. She knows his charisma exceeds hers by several orders of magnitude - a quality that is counter-productive in a vice-president.

The big danger here is the party poohbahs. If the race gets any closer, with Obama's lead in pledged delegates falling below 100, the Cowards of the DNC, in their terror of an actual nominating convention fight, may try to force a ticket with both Obama and Hillary.

If they do, we can all start planning the inauguration for President McCain.