The allure of an Obama-Hillary ticket

President Barack Obama passes Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before delivering a policy address on events in the Middle East at the State Department in Washington, Thursday, May 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Hillary to the rescue? That rumor-theory-speculation-spin-Hail Mary pass has been circulating around the political hustings for the last year.

The Washington mouths are blabbering that Vice President Joe Biden will take a political bullet for his president and step off the 2012 presidential ticket. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obamas archrival-turned-secretary of state, is tired of the international fly-arounds and serving as red meat for Americas attack dogs.

She could step off the world stage and into the vice presidential nomination. Its a way, some political soothsayers say, to rekindle that old black magic.

Washington Post reporter and author Bob Woodward floated the prospect in an October 2010 interview. CNN Host John King suggested that a lot of people think if the presidents a little weak going into 2012, hell have to do a switch there and run with Hillary Clinton as his running mate.

Its on the table, Woodward replied. President Obama needs some of the women, Latinos, retirees that she did so well with during the [2008] primaries. He added that its not out of the question.

The idea still has juice. Little wonder. Politically, Obama has been having a very bad year. A recent ABC/Washington Post poll found that four in 10 Americans strongly disapprove of how O! bama is handling his job. Its the highest that number has risen during his time in office and a sign of the hardening opposition to him, the Post reported last week.

Of course, Obamas posse has ridiculed the concept. The president is happy with Biden and Clinton in their current roles, they say. The idea of an Obama-Clinton ticket has been greeted with scorn, ridicule, incredulity or glee, depending on whos talking.

Still, they natter on.

There are plenty of women and feminists of all genders who begrudgingly voted for Obama in 2008 but are still hankering for Hillary Clinton. Sarah Palin punted and Michele Bachmann is imploding, but Democrats have one more chance to make 2012 the Year of the Woman.

I called my go-to guy on presidential matters. Michael Mezey pooh-poohed the idea as warmed-over grist from the D.C. rumor mills. Its very hard for a president to do that because it seems to me that what the president [would be] doing is admitting failure, said Mezey, a DePaul University political science professor and expert on the American presidency. The storyline will be that the campaign is desperate, he added. I just dont think theyre at a point of desperation.

Im not so sure. An Obama-Clinton ticket would be a potent and historic lure. It would pander to female voters, but I suspect theyll go with it. It would open the door for a Clinton presidential bid in 2016.

And it would bring a tear to U.S. House Speaker John Boehners eye.