Oblinton/Clobama 2008

This morning Hillary Clinton hinted at sharing the ticket with Barack Obama.

So if Clinton became the nominee, inviting Obama aboard her ticket would help keep that support. Obama might be reluctant to join, figuring that if Clinton lost, he’d be able to run for the top job four years later. But he might accept her invitation at the behest of the party.

Obama would have much less reason to pick Clinton. He has made his campaign about the future, and her presence on the ticket would complicate that message. And she has not brought in voters he would automatically have trouble attracting.

I am absolutely adamant that this is not going to happen for the reasons outlined above. Whoever wins the Democratic nomination will have far from a mandate from the Democratic voters, so putting the second-place person on the ticket would severely undermine the presumptive chief-executive from actually being the chief. Nobody wants their thunder stolen in the national election. If Clinton wins, I've said it before, and I'll say it again, from a political standpoint, Bill Richardson is the perfect bottom half of the ticket.

There's no way he'll be able to overshadow HRC, and with his tax-cutting agenda while governor of New Mexico, he should tempt independents to choose this ticket over McCain/Whoever.