HMM...INTRIGUING POLITICAL IDEA – AT 3:45 P.M. ET:  It's all speculation, but there's a certain fascination about this, from Ken Walsh of U.S. News, as he examines the potential Obama strategy for 2012:

Democratic strategists say that if President Obama's re-election prospects look shaky, he could dump Vice President Joe Biden from the 2012 national ticket and choose Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential running mate.

It's inside-Washington speculation at this point, but the strategists make a good case for such a shift. "Biden was named in the first place to shore up Obama on foreign policy issues, and Obama doesn't need that anymore," says a former Clinton adviser. That's because Obama has learned the ropes and has assembled a strong foreign policy and national security team including Robert Gates as defense secretary, Jim Jones as White House national security adviser, and Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.

Uh, yeah, but if I may interject something:  That foreign policy team hasn't produced one solid success, so bear that in mind as you read this.  As for Obama learning the ropes – he's been bouncing off them rather than learning them.  He's got a good part of the world laughing at him and his impotence.

Elevating Clinton to the vice presidential slot would accomplish several objectives: It would appeal to female voters and the still-powerful cadre of Clinton admirers, give Obama more of a pragmatic luster, and shunt the gaffe-prone Biden aside. And it would theoretically discourage Clinton, a former senator from New York, from challenging Obama in the 2012 primaries, Democratic insiders say, because as vice president she would be considered Obama's heir for 2016. Clinton would be 69 that year, the same age as Ronald Reagan when he won the presidency in 1980.

True, but Dems will have been in power for eight years, and she'd be a very old face, in the national spotlight for 24 years. 

An even more intriguing thought is that Obama may not run for a second term.  It's hard to imagine an ego like that pulling out of the race, but Lyndon Johnson's ego was also enormous, and he declined to run again in 1968. 

Everything depends, of course, on the condition of the country as we approach 2012.  If the economy is still in trouble, or in worse trouble, or if we're in a bad jam internationally, the Dem nomination may not be worth much.  If she can avoid blame, which means no major foreign-policy disasters, Hillary could fill the vacuum, cruise to the nomination if Obama takes a hike, and hope for the best in the general.

Just fun talk.  Let's get through 2010 first.

February 5, 2010