Dream Ticket Sounds Good to Many Democrats (Except the Candidates)

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Political Memo
Dream Ticket Sounds Good to Many Democrats (Except the Candidates)
By PATRICK HEALY
Published: April 22, 2008

....For months, the Clinton and Obama campaigns have been hearing suggestions of a so-called dream ticket of Obama/Clinton or Clinton/Obama. Former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo of New York has pressed the idea most aggressively — it also came up in last week’s debate — while a major Clinton supporter in Tuesday’s Pennsylvania primary, Gov. Edward G. Rendell, has blessed it, too.

And some uncommitted superdelegates — the party leaders and elected officials whose votes may determine the nominee — see such a unity ticket as a way to short-circuit a fight for the nomination all the way to the Democratic convention in August, and to blend the voter bases of the two candidates....

All that stands in the way are a few pesky details — like the fact that Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton want to be done with each other, starting now. And that Mr. Clinton bitterly believes that the Obama camp has portrayed him as a brutish, race-baiting campaigner, according to two associates of Mr. Clinton. On top of that, Obama aides assert, Mrs. Clinton’s baggage would damage Mr. Obama’s image in a New York minute. And they also believe that the Clinton camp’s negative tone seems a poor match for Mr. Hope.

To be precise, aides for both candidates would not rule out the idea of a joint ticket — though it was hard to hear it through all the laughing. Indeed, some Clinton aides said that Mrs. Clinton, should she catch up and surpass Mr. Obama in the fight for delegates, would almost certainly have to offer him the vice-presidential slot, given his tremendous popularity (and especially if he is still ahead in the popular vote).

Each might also be in a position to argue that he or she has the right of first refusal on the vice presidency — though Obama aides said that the oddity of having a former president as the spouse of a sitting vice president might be great enough to rule out asking Mrs. Clinton (or at least provide an excuse to do so), a point on which several political analysts agreed....

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But history has shown that politicians are willing to put aside animosities for the sake of victory....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/us/politics/22ticket.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin