A Democratic Dream Ticket?

You may have heard it here first, folks. Early last month, I touted the possibility of a Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton ticket.

This morning on the commercial networks, Hillary Clinton was asked about the possibility and seemed to open the way for talks to begin.

The big question, of course, is who is at the top and who is at the bottom of a possible Democratic dream ticket.

Again, I would argue that because of age, Clinton should be at the top but with a big giveback--to serve only one term. With that magic number of 2,025 (the Democratic delegates needed to clinch the nomination) still far off for either candidate, the last thing the party needs is a bruising, expensive, nasty fight between two candidates appealing to different segments of the party's coalition.

In Texas yesterday, Clinton won support from white women, older women, Latinos, and white men. Obama has been extremely popular with affluent Democrats, young voters, African-Americans, some crossover Republicans, and independents. Imagine what the two could do together.

On the other hand, Clinton won Ohio and Texas by going negative against Obama. Looking forward to Pennsylvania, Obama will need to return the favor, and things could get ugly. They will certainly get expensive, as Obama outspent Clinton on TV ads in Texas and Ohio by a margin of 2 to 1 and still lost both states. The ugliness and the expense could be saved by a brokered ticket.

But right now, it's still a distant possibility.

By Bonnie Erbe