Dream Ticket? Not a Snowball's Chance in Hell

Commentary: Forget an Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama ticket
By Roland S. Martin

(CNN) -- Democrats across the country are abuzz over the possibility of the "dream ticket" featuring Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama running for the White House in November.

In the words of one of "The Sopranos" characters, "Fuggetaboutit!"
Look, this might sound exciting and history-making to have a woman and an African-American competing against the Republicans, but there are multiple reasons why this won't happen.

1. Clinton will not be overshadowed by an underling. Clinton is hugely popular in Democratic circles, but truth be told, that pales in comparison to the love and affection showered on Obama. This is a guy who brings people to tears just by speaking, and attracts folks on the left, right and the disenfranchised.

When you have the children of elected officials putting pressure on their parents (Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill is one example.) to support this guy, you know he is touching people in a place others haven't in 40 years. The role of a VP is to be supportive of a presidential candidate, not someone who overshadows them.

2. Obama would not want to carry Clinton baggage. He has offered a vision of change, and having to answer to the years of strife under the Clintons would be too much. It would make sense to have a fresh face serving as his vice president who doesn't engender anger among some in the Democratic Party, and definitely the GOP. An Obama run would be about going after Republicans and independents, and Clinton being on the ticket would make that very difficult.

3. Way too much bad blood between these two during this campaign. A lot of folks say that George H.W. Bush rankled Ronald Reagan by declaring his economic plan "voodoo economics." That didn't keep Reagan from adding Bush to the ticket. But Bush was one of these loyal guys who would have done anything for the party ... and himself. I don't see that for Clinton and Obama. (Source)

I have to agree. Barack is posing as the face of change and as a politico who hasn't been tainted by Washington (yet). Having Hillary as his sidekick wouldn't be a good look because she's a reminder of her husband's era (which wasn't all that great).

Plus, I don't see Hillary wanting to run with him either. Her campaign focused a lot on sullying his character, so running with Obama after the mud slinging wouldn't make sense. You can't spend a good portion of your campaign (along with your co-presidential hopeful) trying to convince the masses why Obama's a bad choice and then turn around and run with him. A move like that would redefine "flip-flop."

I know that Obama and Hillary running on the same ticket wouldn't work for me and many others. Perhaps one of them will come around. I'm not a good liar so you can imagine my struggle to type that last sentence. Then again, we could be in for a surprise. We'll just have to stay tuned.