Clarence Page: Clinton-Obama dream team? Oh, dream on!

[babylonsister]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/columnists/chi-clinton-obama-dream-team-page-column,0,2081369.column

Clinton-Obama dream team? Oh, dream on!

Clarence Page
March 9, 2008


Just when it seemed as though the last nails had been driven into the talk of a White House-bound dream team of Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, everything old is new again.

The morning after Clinton brought her struggling presidential campaign back to life with wins in the Texas and Ohio Democratic primaries, she dropped new hints of such an eventual political marriage. Asked about the prospect on CBS' "The Early Show," the New York senator hinted that maybe, just maybe, it could happen. "Well, that may, you know, be where this is headed," she said with a laugh, then quickly added, "but, of course, we have to decide who's on the top of the ticket. I think that the people of Ohio very clearly said that it should be me." Maybe.

And maybe the voters in the 11 primaries in a row that she lost have a different idea.

snip//

Teaming up two "firsts," like the first non-white and the first woman nominees, would violate the traditional political wisdom of balancing the ticket ethnically and sexually. That's not unthinkable but it would be risky at a time when smart campaigns try to reduce risks.

Beyond that there's the birds-of-a-feather principle. Obama and Clinton are too much alike to avoid competing to be the boss. Clinton, the former first lady, has little desire to be second banana again and Obama needs her less than she needs the support of his supporters.

And, as alike as the two senators may be in their drive and ambition, it may be impossible for them to project the image of two people who genuinely like each other. Remember the presidential campaigns of Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards in 2004 and Republicans Bob Dole and Jack Kemp in 1996? Sometimes they behaved as if they hardly knew each other.

With memories like that still fresh in many minds, Obama was only being honest by holding out. It's not only too early to imagine an Obama-Clinton ticket or a Clinton-Obama, it is also nearly impossible.